Alex Harsley (born 1938 in Rock Hill, South Carolina) is an American photographer, multimedia artist and founder of the Fourth Street Photo Gallery who lives and works in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Early life and education

Harsley was born to a Methodist mother in Rock Hill and began working on the family cotton and peanut farm as a child during World War II. He met his father, a soldier, in 1945. Harsley moved to New York City in 1948.

Career

Harsley purchased his first real camera, an Exakta XV, in 1959. His first job in New York was a bike messenger, allowing him to multitask as a street photographer. Harsley was the first black photographer in the New York City District Attorney’s office under

Frank Hogan Frank Smithwick Hogan (January 17, 1902 – April 2, 1974) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He served as New York County District Attorney for more than 30 years, during which he achieved a reputation for professionalism and ...

. In 1959 he had his first photo exhibition in Harlem. Originally Harsley worked in

street photography Street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within Public space, public places. It usually has the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by caref ...

, events and portraiture. He has photographed

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

and

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...

the Apollo ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

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at Birdland,

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Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved notoriety in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti ...

and

Shirley Chisholm Shirley Anita Chisholm ( ; ; November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York's 12th congressional dist ...

’s nomination for President.He photographed activists Harry Belefonte,

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, Paul Robeson Jr and

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when they met for the first time at a benefit in 1972. A Harsley photo of

adorned Darren Walker's office in 2019. Harsley began working in video and digital photography, creating experimental video works and collaborating with artist

David Hammons David Hammons (born July 24, 1943) is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s. Early life David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of ten ...

with many of his performance works. Hammons' "Phat Free" video was a collaboration with Harsley and was included in the 1997

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4th Street Photo Gallery

Harsley founded Minority Photographers, Inc. in 1971 in the Lower East Side in New York. He created the nonprofit, 4th Street Photo Gallery, in 1973 as a venue for the group and his growing community of photographers. Exhibitions at the gallery included the work of Curtis Cuffie,

Dawoud Bey Dawoud Bey (born David Edward Smikle; November 25, 1953) is an American photographer, artist and educator known for his large-scale art photography and street photography portraits, including American adolescents in relation to their community ...

Eli Reed Ellis (Eli) Reed (born 1946) is an American photographer and photojournalist. Reed was the first full-time black photographer at Magnum Agency and is the author of several books, including ''Beirut: City of Regrets'' and ''Black In America''. E ...

, Cynthia MacAdams, Denise Keim, David Hammons and

Terry Adkins Terry Roger Adkins (May 9, 1953 – February 8, 2014) was an American artist. He was Professor of Fine Arts in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Early life Adkins was born in Washington, D.C., on May 9, 1953, into a mus ...

, and the photos of musician

Vernon Reid Vernon Alphonsus Reid (born 22 August 1958) is an American guitarist and songwriter best known as the founder of the rock band Living Colour. Reid was named No. 66 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's 2003 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Ti ...

. Harsley gave

Andres Serrano Andres Serrano (born August 15, 1950) is an American photographer and artist. His work, often considered transgressive art, includes photos of corpses and uses feces and bodily fluids. His '' Piss Christ'' (1987) is an amber-tinged photograph of ...

his first exhibition in New York City. It was known as "the Black barbershop of photography," where emerging artists of color mingled with notable artists like

Abelardo Morell Abelardo Morell (born 1948, Havana, Cuba) is a contemporary artist widely known for turning rooms into camera obscuras and then capturing the marriage of interior and exterior in large format photographs. He is also known for his 'tent-camera,' a ...

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and A. D. Coleman.

Personal life

Harsley is an avid bicyclist. He married Shelagh Krueger and has a daughter named Kendra Krueger who has been helping to archive his work.

References

External links

*Fourth Street Photo Galler
websiteNew York Said Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harsley, Alex American artists Artists from New York City 1938 births Living people Artists from South Carolina