MING SMITH

Over a half-century–long career, the Detroit-born, Harlem-based photographer—and the first Black woman photographer to have a work acquired by the Museum of Modern Art—has captured the auras of music legends like Grace Jones, Sun Ra, and Tina Turner. But for all her stirring portraits, it is a candid summer snapshot that sticks most with Smith, a testament to the resilience and joy of Black family.

“I WAS MARRIED TO WHAT I WOULD call an avant-garde jazz musician. It was a period of lost jazz. Jazz always represented the freedom coming out of Black culture. I was touring with his group, the World Saxophone Quartet, all over the world—and I would work along the way, too. Here, I was attending this cool festival in Atlanta, Georgia, where a long list of musicians, including Kenny G, were performing. I was heading toward the entrance, which was crowded with people ready to celebrate and relax on a nice summer day, and I saw a family. They were just hanging out in the park. The Atlanta Child Murders [of 1979–81] were happening that summer. These were young Black boys—I think there were 28 of them at the time—who had been either strangled or stabbed or shot, and they were found not far from where they were murdered, in a park. It sent shock waves around the world, but the media was saying, ‘Well, it was tragic and everything, but these children didn’t have fathers.’ What does that have to do with it? So when I saw this family, I was like, Look, there’s a father right there … How beautiful is that family? They were working class folks. There was a father with his arms around his wife, and their two daughters, just swinging back and forth. They were in a private moment, a family moment. You know, I shoot cultural icons—Tina Turner, James Baldwin—but this photograph was expressing something bigger, something totally sincere, something that was political, but beautiful. I love this image. I knew when I took it that it was a winner. Even without the history, it would have been a special one for me.”