Good morning! And may I ask – what time is it? Well, it’s early, so, clocks be darned! Anyway, I’ve got to save my words today for National Novel Writing Month (yes, it began at 12:01 am, people!). So my peek back in time for this Sunday focuses on portrait maker and still photographer Richard Samuel Roberts (1880-1936).
Also, a first for my All That Jazz weekly feature, Mr. Roberts did not work in Chicago. Born in Florida, he eventually opened a shop in Columbia, South Carolina in 1922. He took thousands of photographs. Upon his death, his family stored his negatives (more than 3,000) in their home where they were rediscovered in 1976. There have been several exhibits featuring his work and a book, too!
“No other gift causes so much real and lasting joy as the gift of your photograph,” he wrote in a leaflet publicizing his activities in the 1920s. To have “a true likeness” of oneself was just as necessary as every other necessity in life.
