PITTSBURGH — For 40 years, Teenie Harris’ camera painted a picture of everyday life for African Americans in Pittsburgh. He documented as the nation emerged from the dDepression and through the Civil Rights Movement. He showed urban life from the kitchen tables, to the funeral homes to the jazz clubs. His collection is the largest single photographic one of any black community in the world.
Harris was born in Pittsburgh in 1908. His real name was Charles, but he was called Teenie from a young age.
“He got his nickname Teenie when he grabbed one of his aunts and said, you know I want you hug you. And she said, oh you’re a teenie little lover, and the nickname stuck,” said Carnegie Museum of Art Community Archivist Charlene Foggie-Barnett.
Harris took pictures of life. They showed the poor, rich, famous and infamous.
“That’s what he did best,” Foggie-Barnett said. “He caught things in the moment in a way that made you want to be a part of the moment. It wasn’t a sense of eaves-dropping. People wanted him to share their stories.”
Harris was the preeminent photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier. His official job was to capture the news of the day. But his love for his craft produced a body of artwork containing more than 78,000 pictures. He saved the negatives and gave the world a view into the culture of Pittsburgh and African Americans from the 1930′s to the late 1970′s.
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His work is on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
“In school we are all taught some basics. We go to slavery to the reformation period to Jim Crow. And then we start learning about civil rights and there’s a bit about black nationalism. And then suddenly get in to the Obama Era and now Black Lives Matter,” Foggie-Barnett said. “We are skipping over a lot of it. But Teenie’s taking us through it. He’s explaining to us without using a single word.”
Harris’ work showcases the people of Pittsburgh. He was so loved and trusted by the community, he often was invited in to witness events usually kept behind closed doors. Those included marriages, baptisms and baby announcements.
Foggie-Barnett was just a baby when Harris photographed her. He was a family friend.
“Teenie was someone who had the ability to treat the common man the same as he would Lena Horne or Billy Epstein or Strayhorn or some other major star who would be in the city. He valued their stories as well,” Foggie-Barnett said.
Harris died in June 1998, just shy of his 90th birthday.
Tickets are available to see In Sharp Focus: Charles “Teenie” Harris at Carnegie Museum of Art. Or you can see the nearly 60,000 images in the museum’s online archive.
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