Congregation Ladies (work of art)
Artwork Info
Key Ideas
- This color photograph is part of a series of contemporary portraits featuring churchgoers in the American South. The women in this image are the pastor and members of a church in Winterville, North Carolina.
- The photograph is a large-scale print. It is over six feet tall and five feet wide.
- Burk Uzzle is an American photojournalist from North Carolina. He was born in Raleigh and grew up in different areas of the state.
- As a photojournalist, Uzzle tells stories using photographs. He captures images of events while they are happening and provides a visual account for news outlets. Uzzle is best known for his photos of Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Movement, and the original Woodstock festival.
Learn More
Congregation Ladies is from a series of portraits by Burk Uzzle. This large-scale photographic print features members of Warren Chapel Church in Winterville, NC, and their pastor Betty Haddock. In this image the women of the congregation pose with their own collections of vibrantly colorful hats. Uzzle arranged their hats by color, to match their clothing, and placed them in the foreground of this composition.
Wilson is a beautiful town, very rich for photography. I attend Black churches regularly, and I noticed these ladies and their sense of style. I invited them to my studio to be photographed. They started bringing their clothes and hats a week or two in advance. Some of them had 12 to 15 hats each, and they told me, if you mess up one of these hats, you will die. I scrubbed the floor of my studio and started to arrange the hats on the floor. I decided on a left-to-right, red, white and blue arrangement, and then placed their outfits in parallel.
Burk Uzzle
Uzzle is a North Carolina native who has lived all over the state. He began his career in photography at a young age. He worked professionally for local newspapers before he was hired to work as a photographer for Life magazine at the age of 23. Now in his 80s, Uzzle has spent most of his life working as a professional photographer. Some of his most iconic documentary photographs include scenes from the Civil Rights Movement, the assassination and funeral of Martin Luther King Jr., and the 1969 Woodstock festival. He is also known for his portraits of small towns and everyday life in the American South. Uzzle lives and works in Wilson, NC.
North Carolina is home. I identify with the culture, the landscape, and both the warmth of the people and their eccentricities.
Burk Uzzle
Additional Resources
Resources for Teachers
- Read a web article that includes Uzzle’s commentary on Congregation Ladies.
- Visit the artist’s website to explore a virtual gallery of his photographs.
- Watch a video interview with the director of a 2019 documentary film about Burk Uzzle. The documentary played at the Full Frame Doc Film Festival in North Carolina.
Resources for Students
- Read a web article about Uzzle’s North Carolina upbringing and his artistic journey.
- Read the artist’s biography.
- Visit a web page to learn about careers in photojournalism and take a quiz to see if you would make a good photojournalist.
Images
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Congregation Ladies
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Uzzle, Congregation Ladies, 2016_25