Photo Exhibit Brings Asheville to Life

Children of the East End Community. Photo by Kent Washburn courtesy of the Asheville Art Museum.

by Moe White

The YMI Cultural Center’s exhibit “That’s Me!” opened last fall to wide acclaim for its documentary photographs of Asheville before the urban renewal movement of the 1970s that ripped the fabric of Asheville’s East End community.

Anthony Lord, Kent Washburn, and Andrea Clark were among the renowned photographers who documented the inner city neighborhoods that were slated to be razed to make way for new public works construction. More recently, Jennifer Johnson has photographed many of the same sites for comparison.

Since the opening series, some prints have been added to the
exhibit, showing even more starkly the “then” and “now.” Among the
highlights of the show are the remarkable portrait studies by Washburn;
while some of the images are “Untitled” pictures of anonymous people,
others, by naming the subject, bring them even more to life.

“That’s Me! Scenes from Black Asheville Before Urban Renewal”
will be on exhibit until April 30 at the YMI Cultural Center, 39 S.
Market Street at the corner of Eagle Street. The show is well worth a
slow, leisurely visit.

For more information, contact the YMI at (828) 252-4614 or online at www.ymicc.org.

Photo by Kent Washburn from the Asheville Art Museum’s collection.