Andrew Feiler Photographic Prints

Collection

Identifier: aarl022-001

Scope and Contents

A large bell hangs in the clock tower overlooking the now quiet campus of Morris Brown College. Its inscription reads, in part, Dedicated to the Education of Youth, Without Regard to Sex, Race or Color.

Predominantly in the decades after the Civil War, about 120 colleges were established to educate African Americans. Over time these schools became known as historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). One of these colleges is Morris Brown.

Morris Brown was founded in 1881, one of the rare HBCUs founded by African Americans as most were founded by white philanthropists and missionaries from outside the South. But over time the college’s finances became increasingly precarious, and in 2003 the school lost its accreditation to financial pressures and scandal. Today its campus is largely abandoned.

Andrew Feiler was granted unique access to the hauntingly silent campus of Morris Brown and spent a year shooting a 60-image body of work. A book of this work, Without Regard to Sex, Race, or Color, was published by the University of Georgia Press. Its title is inspired by the inscription on the school bell.

During Andrew’s time on campus, he sought visual moments and emotional touch points that illuminate the stories in these stilled classrooms and hallways. But in the research that he did as part of this work, one statistic is glaring: The roughly 100 HBCUs that remain are a mere 3% of colleges in America, but they represent more than 10% of African Americans who go to college and more than 25% who earn degrees. These facts replant this story firmly in the midst of one of the core debates raging in our society: how do we create opportunity in America? How do we create onramps to the middle class?

(Taken from https://www.andrewfeiler.com/-without-regard-to-sex--race--or-color-)

Dates

Majority of material found within 2012 - 2013

Creator

Feiler, Andrew (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Andrew Feiler is a photographer, author and fifth-generation Georgian. Having grown up Jewish in Savannah, he has been shaped by the rich complexities of the American South. Feiler has long been active in civic life. He has helped create over a dozen community initiatives, serves on multiple not-for-profit boards, and is an active advisor to numerous elected officials and political candidates. His art is an extension of his civic values.

Feiler’s newest book of photography, A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America, was published in 2021 by the University of Georgia Press. This work is the first comprehensive photodocumentary of the program created by Tuskegee Institute principal Booker T. Washington and Sears, Roebuck & Company president Julius Rosenwald. From 1912 to 1937, this collaboration built 4,978 schools for African American children across 15 southern and border states and transformed America.

Feiler was named “Book Photographer of the Year” by Prix de la Photographie Paris in 2022, and A Better Life for Their Children won the gold medal for documentary book. The book also won the International Photography Awards (IPA) 2022 first place for documentary book. It has been honored with an Eric Hoffer Award, an Axiom Award Gold Medal, and a Book, Jacket, and Journal Award from the Association of University Presses. Photolucida named Feiler’s Rosenwald school images a 2020 Top 50 portfolio, and Photoville selected them for the 2020 edition of The Fence, an outdoor exhibition displayed internationally in eleven cities. The solo exhibition of this work is now on tour.

Feiler’s earlier book, Without Regard to Sex, Race, or Color, was also published by the University of Georgia Press. Focused on the largely abandoned campus of a historically black college, this body of artistic documentary photography offers a new way into the debate raging in our society about the essential role education has played as the foundation of the American Dream.

Feiler’s photographs have been instrumental in the campaign to create a new US national historical park and inspired the composition of a symphony. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, L’Œil de la Photographie, Architect, Preservation, The Forward, and on CBS This Morning and NPR. His prints have been displayed in galleries and museums, including solo exhibitions at such venues as the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, and International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. His photographs are in public and private collections, including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Feiler earned his bachelor’s in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a master’s in modern history from Oxford University and a master’s in business administration from Stanford University.

(Taken from https://www.andrewfeiler.com/bio)