Still from Bradford Young, REkOGNIZE, 2017, Three-channel video (color, sound), Courtesy of the Artist. REkOGNIZE is commissioned by the Hillman Photography Initiative, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Bradford Young: REkOGNIZE
Scaife Galleries
REkOGNIZE is a three-channel video installation and a meditation on photography, memory, and movement. Artist and Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young (Selma, Arrival) finds inspiration in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood, a site of the early 20th-century Great Migration. During this time, millions of African Americans moved from the rural southern United States to cities in the north and west. The Hill District saw a flourishing of culture during these years and was a site of artistic development for luminaries such as August Wilson, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Errol Garner, and many others. REkOGNIZE takes its visual cues from the Pittsburgh landscape, especially the city’s tunnels, which serve not only as literal entry points into the city, but also as metaphors for this movement of people and culture.
The work features Young’s footage of the Hill District, shots of Pittsburgh’s tunnels, and a translation of several Teenie Harris photographs into matrices of metadata. This digital code is also the basis for the work’s musical score by jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran. For REkOGNIZE, Moran picks up on the patterns and visual rhythms found within the code, creating music that enters into conversation with Young’s imagery. Young and Moran’s interdisciplinary approach to Harris’s images asks us to reflect on the power of photographs from the past to inspire work today. In doing so, they blur the boundaries between still and moving image, analog and digital, and visual and auditory experiences.
Cinematographer Bradford Young discusses his love for still photography.
About the artist
Artist and cinematographer Bradford Young (b. 1977) was nominated for an Academy Award in 2016 (Arrival) and is currently filming the untitled Han Solo film. His short films include his 2016 collaboration with Common, Black America Again. Young’s two-channel video installation Untitled (Structures), 2012, produced with artist Leslie Hewitt, was commissioned by the Menil Collection with support from MCA Chicago and the Des Moines Art Center.
REkOGNIZE is commissioned by the Hillman Photography Initiative at Carnegie Museum of Art. Support for the Hillman Photography Initiative is provided by the William T. Hillman Foundation and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation.
Exhibition Images
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Family members of murder victim George Howard embracing outside of his apartment, 708 Junilla Street, Hill District, November 1951, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Crestas Terrace police officer D. A. Cook, and Dorothy Anderson, standing on hillside crime scene of murder of Raymond Jones, Crestas Terrace, May 1949, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Group portrait of wedding party, posed in yard possibly on Chalfont Street, July 25, 1942, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Men and women standing around parked hearse, for funeral of murder victim Genevieve “Ginger” Stewart, at Henry A. Myers funeral home, 6542 Frankstown Avenue, East Liberty, May, 1939, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Wilbur H. Sullivan, dancing waltz with daughters Herschelle Sandra Sullivan and Paula Kathleen Sullivan in Syria Mosque for Alpha Kappa Alpha’s 1954 Cotillion, February 1954, black and white: Kodak Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Portrait of bride Adah Moore Lavelle, wearing gown with faintly striped yoke, small buttons on front, and long sleeves with puffed shoulders, posed holding bouquet in yard possibly on Chalfont, Street, at night, July 25, 1942, black and white: Agfa Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Men at press conference, from left: Ewari “Ed” Ellis, Roland Hayes, Sala Udin Saif Salaam (Sam Howze), Jitu Weusi, and Rev. Rosamund Kay, with Tim Stevens and Father August “Gus” Taylor seated in back, during African Liberation Week, May – June 1973, black and white: Kodak Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Night scene with steel mill and John Henry Whiskey advertisement, c. 1938-1945, black and white: Agfa Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Male entertainer dancing with fingers pointed to floor, beside, microphone, in club with jazz, musician caricatures on bandstand, c. 1940-1945, black and white: Agfa Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Female dancer in two piece costume bending over backwards on stage with jazz musician caricatures decoration, c. 1940-1945, black and white: Agfa Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
Charles “Teenie” Harris, Children wearing Halloween costumes at Bedford Dwellings, October 31, 1941, black and white: Agfa Safety Film, Heinz Family Fund
