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One Shot Harris: The Photographs of Charles "Teenie" Harris

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One of the best well kept secrets, and only known to the Pittsburgh area, was Charles Teenie Harris, who made photos out of one shot(hence his other nickname),worked for the Pittsburgh Courier, as well as owned his own photo studio. He photographed the famous and ordinary, rich and poor, black and white(sometimes integrated), and most events in Pittsburgh at the time(1930s-1970s). Once you open this book, you will fall in love and enjoy the photos that this man has made and appreciate his love for art. Although for the most part the photos are tasteful, there are some that are not(murder and accident scenes) and even those are not obscene as one may feel. I recommend this book to all who wish to know of Mr Harris. It is sad that he got accolades after his passing, as well as to never know that his work was returned to him, after going to court to retrieve it. Oh and one more thing, check out Stanley Crouch's biting commentary on Pittsburgh and its history at the beginning. You won't look at history that way again.

I was intrigued that other reviewers of this wonderful book should be surprised by its contents. Most large American cities in the forties and fifties that had daily papers employed photographers to take photos like these, pictures that immediately grabbed the reader and drew them into the story. The fact that Charles Harris was black didn't really matter because he was totally professional. When he worked for the Pittsburgh Courier, it was probably the leading black paper in the country.

Look through these pages and you're back there on Wylie or Herron Avenues, taking in a movie at the Roosevelt or just listening to WAMO. The photos really do capture the flavor of black Pittsburgh back then. The detail in the street scenes is fascinating likewise the shots of folks working: a female DJ; mechanic; broom maker; railroad men; ladies in a bakery or a Courier pressman.

What I thought set these photos apart from the output of photographers on other big city papers is the humanness that shines out from all of them. Harris seemed to have the knack of capturing a very positive feeling from all those who stood before his lens. Incidentally, he was called 'One shot' because that's all he took. I'm not convinced. Newspaper photographers don't know how their work will be used in a paper. A photo could be used as an upright; landscape or square so they usually take several of the same scene to give editors plenty of choice.

The book has 135 duotones printed with a 175 screen on a good matt art, the typical Abrams quality art title. Harris gets an interesting fairly short biog on four of the book's back pages and there is even an index. Luckily for the readers this is not strictly an 'art' photo book so the necessary captions are with the photos and not on a page at the back.

Another book of photos for a black daily, the Star Post of Dallas is Behold the People: R.C. Hickman's Photographs of Black Dallas 1949-1961 (Barker Texas History Center Series) with over a hundred images. Separate, but Equal shows the work of Henry Anderson, a photographer who lived and worked in Greenville, Mississippi. These two and 'One shot Harris' are wonderful photo books of black life in recent decades beautifully shot by three black cameramen.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

First, I want to say that I have purchased a great many books on Amazon.com, and I have never bothered to write a review; although I do read the reviews of any book I am interested in. I am a woman of a certain age and have returned to school(again) to finally complete my undergraduate degree. I registerd for a photography workshop and was required to do a final paper on any photographer of my choice. Naturally,for me the first person to pop into my head was James VanDer Zee, and then I saw something on television about a Roy DeCarava, however there wasn't very much information on this gentleman. As fate would have it I was searching around on Amazon for something and Eureka! I stumbled upon One Shot Harris. I took one look and I was hooked. Needless to say my paper was on Teenie Harris. What a man, what story, and he is the bomb photographer!!! After looking at his images I wanted to travel to Pittsburgh and walk the streets that this man walked. Teenie Harris: A Little Known Black History Fact. If you are a photograpy buff, please pick up a copy. You will not be disappointed. Teenie was the man.

As I slowly turned the pages on this masterpiece, it brought back so many memories. I came along much later than most of these photographs, however, I can remember as a little girl walking down Herron Avenue or driving through as we lived not too far from there. I left Pittsburgh 20 years ago, and much has changed. My father was also a picture taker and I remember watching him develop his pictures in the cellar. He used a very dark bulb and I can almost smell the chemicals he used. It was amazing to me and my sisters to watch those pictures come to life right before our eyes. I don't know if my father knew Charles Harris, because I didn't hear about him myself until a few years ago and I had lived in Pittsburgh for 40 years before moving away. I did hear talk that some type of building is to be erected or dedicated featuring most of Mr. Harris' photographs. To my knowledge that has not happened yet, but when it does, I will make a trip home to see it.

The 120 photographs in One Shot Harris depict the struggle of African Americans against discrimination and show the strength and dignity which they displayed in creating their own unique community institutions. Although the days are gone when a corner of Pittsburgh's Hill District, Wylie and ? were known as the Crossroads of the World - a casualty of "urban renewal" in the form of the Civic Arena, Harris's photographs survive as a reminder and a record of that time. Charles Harris' familiarity with this community infuses his work with a uniquely intimate sense of the neighborhood and its people. A recent exhibit of his work at the Westmoreland Museum of Art even had the title "Spirit of the Community."

Charles "One Shot" or "Teenie" Harris was born in Pittsburgh and his work as staff photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier and as an operator of his own photographic studio spanning from the 1930s to the 1970s, provide us with a glimpse into the lives of people in the Hill during that time. His work shows many different aspects of society, including people at work, at play - mostly in the restaurants or clubs, such as the Crawford Grill and the Hurricane. Harris also captured musical celebrities such as Louis Armstrong (pg. 145), Duke Ellington (pg. 146), Billy Eckstine (pg. 151, 153, 155), Lena Horne (pg. 150), Sarah Vaughan (pg. 151), Sam Cooke (pg. 152), Cab Calloway (pg. 156), Ray Charles (pg. 158), Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie (both on pg. 155). All of these musicians flocked to the Hill's clubs to jam. Harris also captured legendary Negro League baseball players of the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords (pgs.96-99), for whom Harris himself played for when they were known as the Crawford Colored Giants. His images also show unique scenes with legendary boxers Muhammad Ali (pg. 92) and Joe Louis (pg. 93, 156). Politicians such as Eleanor Roosevelt (pg. 84), John F. Kennedy (pg. 88-89), Martin Luther King, Jr. (pg.91), Dwight Eisenhower (pg. 86) and Richard Nixon (pg. 87) are shown interacting with the public.

Literary and social critic Stanley Crouch gives the photographs a context by presenting an overview of Pittsburgh's history that emphasizes the importance of African American people and especially by identifying the significant migration of African Americans from the South to the North, filling the jobs of the recently departed soldiers in factories whose production was crucial for the war efforts. Between 1910 and 1930 the African American population of Pittsburgh grew by some 120 percent, from 25,600 to 55,000. Although the Pittsburgh's population has declined significantly since 1910, its African American population has increased from 25,600 to over 86,000. These photographs help document the most vibrant period in Pittsburgh's growing African American community. His essay displays a meticulous recognition of details in photographs, making even the most common image an interesting story. Crouch also identifies the significant figures in jazz that emerged from this community to affect the international Jazz scene in an important way. Several photographs capture Pittsburgh's own Billy Eckstine, the best of which show him with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie (pg. 155). A young George Benson (pg. 157) sprawls across a piano and a smiling 11-year-old Ahmad Jamal plays the piano for an adoring crowd (pg. 26).

Deborah Willis, professor of photography and imaging at New York University's Tisch School of Arts and the author of Reflections in Black and, gives us the background on "Teenie" or "One Shot," the origins of his nicknames, how he came to be a photographer, and the social and cultural background and significance of his work. She points out that the sincerity of the people Harris photographed was a product of a trust that they placed in Harris which resulted in a depiction of African Americans with great dignity that was absent from the mainstream "White" press. Willis quotes former Pittsburgh Courier editor Frank Bolden who described Harris as a storyteller and said his "pictures all told a story." Some of the significant stories are hidden below the surface. For example, the men counting coins (pg. 69), were most likely doing so for number runners like Gus Greenlee (pg. 142) or Woogie Harris (pg. 156) - the brother of "One Shot" who loaned him the money to start is own studio. These men served as neighborhood bankers for African Americans who could not secure loans from banks and the example of Charles Harris was much like that of many other successful Black businessmen in that they needed to borrow from these men to get their start. The Black Businessmen's parade was a large neighborhood parade that gave African Americans an opportunity to display pride in their community and its legacy lives in these photographs of streets packed with onlookers (pg. 44-46). The Crystal Barbershop shows the classic barbershop owned by "Woogie" Harris (pg. 132).

The story of Pittsburgh's Hill District and its African American community has and will continue to become an important subject of research. The publication of "One Shot Harris" presents us with a look into work of one the greatest visual documentarians of that community and urban life in the Northern United States during the period of time that is now known as "The Great Migration," signaling a shift in the African American population from rural Southern communities to urban Northern cities. This work is the immediate product of the Carnegie Museum of Arts acquisition of the over 80,000 negatives that represent the Charles "Teenie" Harris photographic archive. Its publication provides us with a glimpse of things to come and a look into some of the visual stories of the Hill's past. The 135 images in this book remind us of why the Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay once described Pittsburgh's Hill District as "The Crossroads of the World."

Teenie was a true master of his craft. He captured mid-20th century Black Pittsburgh as did Matthew Brady during the Civil War. Teenie's photos do "jump off the page." Teenie's vivid images reflect his vibrant, passionate approach to life and his surroundings.

The fact that Harris is not a household name is a joke. If you are A. from Pittsburg B. an African American, C. a Human, you must own this collection. I can only say that in my mind, Harris blows away Evans and Weegee put together. An American Master