The first pictures that you are going to find of the Fair will be very matter-of-factly, documenting colours, arrangements and buildings of the fair in general. As men only adapt to industrial output in this century of progress, the visitors of this fair play a rather subdued role – that of the spectator gazing on new technology.
However, these spectators are predominantly white. Middle class white Americans.
It is only in native villages that African Americans or imported indigenous people from all over the world are exposed. Furthermore, they are not exposed as merely a different kind of ethnicity or culture, but as objects belonging to the exposition. Dances and - for Westerners – foreign and alienating rituals were being show-cast only to entertain the people, not to give an accurate picture of life in the colonies. Thus, the few pictures of coloured people are actually those of these “exhibition objects”, dancing.
As for African Americans, even though they did have a pavilion and a few exhibits, pictures are scarce or not to be found at all. It is only when reading up on the background of the Fair, that one comes to notice their absence. Even big events like the Negro Day were not documented as a part of the Fair, its existence was almost wiped out from the history of the Fair as a result. No pictures - no reality, no mentioning in books.
Another aspect of this absence of pictures, is due to the lack of African American photographers who might have shifted the generally white attention a bit. But with no one daring to look at African Americans as equal to the photographer, no pictures were taken those years. For, taking a picture, particularly a portrait, it is necessary to actually face the other, your subject, at eye-level, of ascertaining that the other is worth being documented in his lifetime and yours.
African Americans are absent, yes indeed. But what is more important is maybe that they are noticeably absent and thus tell more stories about their life then, than any book on the Fair ever could.
