CAPTURING
COMMUNITY
Earlie Hudnall Jr. has spent
decades photographing historically
Black neighborhoods in Houston
Wheels (1993).
“These boys were
just rolling from
scene to scene
in front of the
camera,” Hudnall
says. “I seldom
ask someone to
pose. I just try to
take the situation
that’s presented
to me.”
Portfolio
Long before george fLoyd’s death, earLie hudnaLL Jr.
was photographing the neighborhood where Floyd grew up.
Houston’s Third Ward, like many Black enclaves, has sufered
the long-term efects of systemic racism and inequity. But Hud-
nall, who has been documenting several historically Black neigh-
borhoods in Houston for more than 40 years, does not focus on
the hardships of poverty. Instead, his photos capture the every-
day lives of residents, filled with moments of beauty and joy.
“People need to know that you see things within what they call
‘the ghetto,’ ” says Hudnall. “It’s home where kids and people
have to survive and live and coexist together.”
Hudnall’s earliest notion of photography’s importance came
from sitting on the porch with his grandmother Bonnie Jean in
Hattiesburg, Miss., looking through an album she had put to-
gether of the community. “That just stuck with me because it was
a document that represented our history,” says Hudnall. “So much
has been lost within the Black community from not being able to
maintain its own history, from slavery up till now.” In 1968, after
serving in Vietnam, he moved to Houston and studied at Texas
Southern University, where he found a mentor in artist and pro-
fessor John T. Biggers. “He always said, ‘Art is life,’ ” Hudnall says.
“One must draw upon their personal experiences, family, com-
munity and what you’re all about. This has been my whole plight.”
Hudnall records for posterity the architecture of weathered
shotgun houses and the vibrant lives within them. He depicts
people at ease, celebrating holidays, dressed in their Sunday fin-
ery, and kids in the thrall of summertime. “These are the young
Floyds coming up,” he says. “They need to be cared for and
guided. Rather than holding up a sign and marching for a day
or two, then forgetting about it, come here, talk to people, get
to know them.” —PauL MoakLey
