Photographer Harlan Bozeman straddles tragedy and hope in Elaine

“Look once at Bozeman’s photographs of mostly Black subjects, and his work appears like the documented evidence of their lives. Look again, and it appears as portraiture. Straddling that line between candid realism and heightened sophistication has enabled him to snap images that have gained notice from The New York Times, which described his work at the Studio Museum in Harlem as “a tender record of present-day life in the Black community of Elaine, Ark.” This year, the burgeoning photographer, who spent his formative years in Bentonville, and until last year lived in Little Rock, was named a Guggenheim Fellow.”