Paul “Hots” Watkins, Stable Manager for Many Years of Diteman’s Stable, 1612 Aliceanna Street, East Baltimore, Maryland, December 1979, from the series Southern Roads/City Pavements

Roland L. Freeman, Paul "Hots" Watkins, Stable Manager for Many Years of Diteman's Stable, 1612 Aliceanna Street, East Baltimore, Maryland, December 1979, from the series Southern Roads/City Pavements, 1979, printed 1982, gelatin silver print, sheet: 14 x 11 in. (35.4 x 28.0 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of George H. Dalsheimer, 1991.80.2, © 1979, Roland L. Freeman

Artwork Details

Title: Paul “Hots” Watkins, Stable Manager for Many Years of Diteman’s Stable, 1612 Aliceanna Street, East Baltimore, Maryland, December 1979, from the series Southern Roads/City Pavements
Artist: Roland L. Freeman
Date: 1979, printed 1982
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sheet: 14 x 11 in. (35.4 x 28.0 cm.)
Copyright: © 1979, Roland L. Freeman
Credit Line: Gift of George H. Dalsheimer
Mediums Description: gelatin silver print
Classifications: Photography
Photoprint
Subjects: Occupation — farm — groom
Cityscape — street — Aliceanna Street
Portrait male — Watkins, Paul “Hots”
Cityscape — Maryland — Baltimore
Recreation — leisure — smoking
African American
Object Number: 1991.80.2
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1991.80.2

Artwork Description

The Baltimore horse-cart vendors known as “arabbers” hold a special place in Freeman’s early development – so much that he dedicated an entire project to an exploration of their lives. Paul “Hots” Watkins is an intimate photographic portrayal of one member of this hard-working and now virtually extinct group in Baltimore. A descendent of arabbers himself, Freeman’s closeness to the subject was both difficult and rewarding – he wanted his documentation to reveal the arabbers’ rich social history as well as their importance in the African American story.

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