Make A Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York)

Robert McNeill, Make A Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York), 1938, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.72.1, © 1938, Robert McNeill
Robert McNeill, Make A Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York), 1938, gelatin silver print, image: 7 1⁄2 x 9 5⁄8 in. (19.1 x 24.5 cm) sheet: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1993.72.1, © 1938, Robert McNeill

Artwork Details

Title
Make A Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York)
Artist
Date
1938
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
image: 7 1⁄2 x 9 5⁄8 in. (19.1 x 24.5 cm) sheet: 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
Copyright
© 1938, Robert McNeill
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Cityscape — New York — Bronx
  • African American
  • Occupation — domestic
  • Cityscape — New York — New York
  • Figure group
Object Number
1993.72.1
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1993.72.1

Artwork Description

In 1937, after enrolling at the New York Institute of Photography, McNeill did a series on black domestic workers for Fortune magazine. The sophisticated composition and nuanced handling of light and space in Make a Wish (Bronx Slave Market, 170th Street, New York) did not, however, mask the irony in the image of women waiting on a street corner hoping to pick up a day’s work in front of a poster advertising a movie for those with leisure time. When Fortune rejected the pictures, Flash!, a magazine aimed at middleclass black readers, published them as a thirteen-photograph feature.


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012

Works by this artist (9 items)

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Dawoud Bey, Untitled #1 (Picket Fence and Farmhouse) from the series Night Coming Tenderly, Black, 2017, printed 2018, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Ellen Benninghoven and Michael Schafer, 2019.29.1, © 2019, Dawoud Bey
Untitled #1 (Picket Fence and Farmhouse) from the series…
Artist
Date2017, printed 2018
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Dawoud Bey, A Young Woman Between Carrolburg Place and Half Street, Washington, D.C., 1989, printed 2018, inkjet photograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2019.30.3, © 2019, Dawoud Bey
A Young Woman Between Carrolburg Place and Half Street,…
Artist
Date1989, printed 2018
inkjet photograph
Not on view
Dawoud Bey, Untitled #13 (Trees and Reflections), from the series Night Coming Tenderly, Black, 2017, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Ellen Benninghoven and Michael Schafer, 2019.29.5, © 2019, Dawoud Bey
Untitled #13 (Trees and Reflections), from the series Night…
Artist
Date2017
gelatin silver print
Not on view
Dawoud Bey, Untitled #9 (The Field) from the series Night Coming Tenderly, Black, 2017, printed 2018, gelatin silver print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Ellen Benninghoven and Michael Schafer, 2019.29.2, © 2019, Dawoud Bey
Untitled #9 (The Field) from the series Night Coming…
Artist
Date2017, printed 2018
gelatin silver print
Not on view

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