Florestine Perrault Collins

1895 (age 93)

New Orleans

Out of 101 African-American women who identified themselves as photographers in the 1920 United States. Census, Collins was the only one in the New Orleans area. Life and She began to photograph at the age of 14. Her subjects ranged from weddings, communions, and graduations to returning soldiers. At the beginning of her career she had to pass as white to be able to assist photographers. By the time she opened her own studio she did not have to hide her race and photographed African-American families. She gained a loyal following and had success, due to both her photography skills and marketing skills through advertising in newspapers and playing up the sentimentality of a well done photograph. Florestine Perrault Collins career "mirrored a complicated interplay of gender, racial and class expectations". In the early times of her career, she also had to pass as white in order to increase her employment chances. “The history of black liberation in the United States could be characterized as a struggle over images as much as it has also been a struggle over rights.” according to bell hooks. Florestine Perrault Collins photographies are representative of that. She was featured in the 2014 documentary Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. She is recognized as a photographer who went against the popular narrative of negative portrayals of African-Americans in the media by working with her clients to make photographs that "reflected pride, sophistication, and dignity." She work has been included in many exhibitions in New Orleans in the late 1900s and early 2000s, such as Women Artists in Louisiana, 1825–1965: A Place of Their Own and is the subject of the 2013 book Picturing Black New Orleans: A Creole Photographer’s View of the Early Twentieth Century by Arthé A. Anthony.

Florestine Perrault Collins

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Background

She was born to parents who were free people of color and her father had a well paying job, but as the oldest child of six she had to discontinue her formal education to help add to the family"s income.

Career

Out of 101 African-American women who identified themselves as photographers in the 1920 United States. Census, Collins was the only one in the New Orleans area. Life and She began to photograph at the age of 14. Her subjects ranged from weddings, communions, and graduations to returning soldiers.

At the beginning of her career she had to pass as white to be able to assist photographers.

By the time she opened her own studio she did not have to hide her race and photographed African-American families. She gained a loyal following and had success, due to both her photography skills and marketing skills through advertising in newspapers and playing up the sentimentality of a well done photograph.

Florestine Perrault Collins career "mirrored a complicated interplay of gender, racial and class expectations". In the early times of her career, she also had to pass as white in order to increase her employment chances.

“The history of black liberation in the United States could be characterized as a struggle over images as much as it has also been a struggle over rights.” according to bell hooks.

Florestine Perrault Collins photographies are representative of that. She was featured in the 2014 documentary Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. She is recognized as a photographer who went against the popular narrative of negative portrayals of African-Americans in the media by working with her clients to make photographs that "reflected pride, sophistication, and dignity."

She work has been included in many exhibitions in New Orleans in the late 1900s and early 2000s, such as Women Artists in Louisiana, 1825–1965: A Place of Their Own and is the subject of the 2013 book Picturing Black New Orleans: A Creole Photographer’s View of the Early Twentieth Century by Arthé A. Anthony.

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