“One Shot” was Charles “Teenie” Harris’ second nickname.
With one photograph, Harris could encapsulate a story. His 31 images on display at the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts chronicle urban African American life. Between the Depression and the Civil Rights Movement, Harris captured more than 80,000 images while working for the Pittsburgh Courier as a staff photographer.
With a picket sign in hand, a woman protests Isaly’s, the company that would not hire her or others as counter clerks because they were black.
A woman with wiry, gray hair sits on a cushy chair, staring intensely at the camera with her deep, dark eyes. Harris was known for his ability to gain his subjects’ trust – for revealing their vulnerabilities, joys and fears. With her is a middle-aged man and young boy with a mischievous yet cute gaze. What brought this intergenerational group together? Were they family?

“There’s this social livelihood and overall depth,” Steven Miyamoto said of the Harris collection. “I’ve never seen black culture portrayed in this genre.”
In other images are more protest scenes, children playing on sweltering summer days, couples dancing, barbershop socializing, a “Tom Thumb” wedding and a funeral possession. The collection also includes a photo with Dizzy Gillespie and another of Lena Horne, famous entertainers in their day.
“It’s a slice of history, both playful and serious, complex, yet simple,” Sarah Smith Spahn, DIVA exhibits director, said. “You get celebrations, music and portraits, but also the funeral. He took pictures of the everyday working class – a waitress instead of a fancy lady dressed up.”
Harris’ Rhapsody in Black and White collection, on display at DIVA through Nov. 22, came to Eugene with the help of Carol Philips, programming manager at the Hult Center. Beyond the photo show, she said, Harris’ work will come to life in what has become a collaborative community arts effort.
Two years ago, Philips met a booking agent for EVIDENCE, the dance company led by Ronald K. Brown that combines contemporary dance – African, Caribbean, modern, ballet and social – with enlarged images of Harris’ work as the backdrop. That was her introduction to Harris’ work and it inspired her to bring it to Eugene with a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
“We wanted it all,” Philips said. “The dance is very powerful with masterful spirit, and the photos show such love and humanity. It’s black life during a difficult time, but it isn’t all tragedy.”
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