Willie Middlebrook, photographer who documented African-American life, dies at 54

Willie Middlebrook, photographer who documented African-American life, dies at 54 Willie Robert Middlebrook, a photographer who sought to enlarge public perceptions of the African-American community through painterly depictions of its people and places, died Saturday at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, Calif. "What he has done so successfully that many others have not done is he has bridged the gap between . It was so fulfilling for him," Outterbridge said. "He used to say, 'It's all in the eye. ' He was very fascinated with the uniqueness of our eyes," Jessica Middlebrook said. His survivors include three brothers, five children and seven grandchildren. Middlebrook often used self-portraits to explore conflicting ideas about identity, a theme that he could not escape as a heavy-set, 6-foot-tall black man who wore his hair in dreadlocks and turned heads whenever he entered a room. "I've never been to jail, and if you put drugs in front of me I probably wouldn't know what to do with them. He frequently focused his lens on his family and friends, suggesting his deep personal bonds with loved ones along with their shared ethnic heritage. His eye was drawn to black life in varied manifestations, including tender compositions of a grandmother and child and grittier images of police helicopters over Watts and live chickens waiting for slaughter. Middlebrook was "one of the most important contemporary photographers working today, even though he has not had the recognition," said Kent Kirkton, director of the Institute for Arts and Media at California State University, Northridge, which featured some of Middlebrook's early photographs in a show held in conjunction with the region-wide exhibition Pacific Standard Time. Born in Detroit on Aug. Middlebrook helped set up the academy's darkroom and "he never came out. arts organizations, including the Los Angeles Photography Center, the Children's Gallery at Barnsdall Park in Hollywood and the Watts Towers Art Center. He did large-scale things. Middlebrook worked as an administrator at a number of L. "He was one of the most gifted and knowledgeable photographers in the country. These are the varieties of images that need to be seen. His contemporary work makes powerful statements about the life of African-American people. Willie Middlebrook, photographer who documented African-American life, dies at 54 Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 12/05/2012