This exhibition features 24 portrait photos by Atlanta-based artist and photo-journalist Johnny Crawford, along with a suite of six oil on canvas portraits by Macon’s own Wilfred Stroud. The images by both artists pay tribute to black Maconites who contributed to the quality of life for all citizens, many without receiving any public recognition.
Macon native Wilfred Stroud was a painter, musician, educator, and chronicler of Macon’s African American history. Stroud is best known for his signature mural From Africa to America which is on permanent display in the Tubman Museum. The paintings in this exhibition are from a series of black history portraits done by the artist in the 1990s.
Johnny Crawford is a native of Jackson, Georgia. He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, and for 28 years was a staff photographer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. In 2017 Crawford was Artist-in-Residence at Middle Georgia State University. During his tenure he completed a collection of portraits that are a limited, yet compelling view of Macon’s African American community from the perspective of an outsider coming to know, and to be known, within a close-knit community.
