On Saturday, Aug. 16, the Edgewood Arts District pulsed with history. The closing reception of "WE ARE MUSIC: Photographs by Jim Alexander and Sue Ross" at The Sun ATL doubled as a 90th birthday celebration for acclaimed photographer and cultural archivist Jim Alexander, drawing an intergenerational crowd of Atlanta's cultural leaders.
Former Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs Executive Director Camille Love mingled with her successor, Adriane Jefferson. Noted artist and printmaker Jamaal Barber, playwright and activist Pearl Cleage, and collectors Esohe and George Galbreath stood shoulder to shoulder with artists Charlotte Riley-Webb, Freddie Styles, and Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier. Atlanta Jazz Festival producer Gary Windom, curator Karen Comer Lowe, and photographer Sheila Pree Bright joined WABE host Rose Scott, National Black Arts Festival Pres/ CEO Leatrice Ellzy Wright, journalist Portia Bruner, and One Contemporary Gallery founder Faron Manuel to honor a man who has spent nearly half a century documenting Atlanta's art, music, and political life.
"There are people with a semblance of respect for me and what I do. I'm grateful," said Alexander, humbly reflecting on the celebration.
The afternoon was full of tributes. A letter from Mayor Andre Dickens, presented during the celebration, praised Alexander's lifetime of work: "Atlanta's arts and creative community thrives because of visionaries like you who share their gifts while lifting others."Councilman Michael Julian Bond shared a proclamation from the city. Artist Raphael Bahindwa unveiled a painted portrait of Alexander, a gift symbolizing the next generation's gratitude to Atlanta's first designated "Master Artist."
The exhibition itself, curated by Shawn Vinson, was both a retrospective of Alexander's career and a record of the Atlanta music scene over the decades. His photos of Dizzy Gillespie, Usher and Ludacris, Run-DMC, Miles Davis, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, Taj Mahal, Michael Jackson, Sammy Davis Jr., and Al Green lined the walls. Many were taken at the Atlanta Jazz Festival, which Alexander has documented since its founding in 1978. Together, the collection offers a visual chronicle of Atlanta's place in shaping American culture.
"WE ARE MUSIC" paired Alexander's work with that of Sue Ross, a photojournalist, who spent 36 years with the City of Atlanta and became the trusted documentarian of six consecutive African American mayors. Ross's portraits of Herbie Hancock, Nina Simone, Freddie Hubbard, Sheila E, and Famadou Don Moye-along with Atlanta Jazz Festival images of Betty Carter, Sonny Rollins, and Cassandra Wilson with Terence Blanchard-showcased how her civic perspective extended into the cultural sphere. The joint exhibition underscored how both artists used their lenses to amplify black culture, preserve history, and shape Atlanta's cultural narrative.
"That was Maynard's goal to have artists come with skills in the arts to mentor and teach other people. I met people like John Riddle, John Eaton, Joe Jennings, Tina Dunkley, Sandra Franks, and other artists who were mentoring, and that was right up my alley."
Photographer jim alexander
A Career Rooted in Community
Mentored by Gordon Parks in the late 1960s, Alexander moved to Atlanta from the Northeast in 1976 at the invitation of Mayor Maynard Jackson, who asked him to teach photography at the Atlanta Neighborhood Arts Center. "That was Maynard's goal," Alexander recalled, "to have artists come with skills in the arts to mentor and teach other people. I met people like John Riddle, John Eaton, Joe Jennings, Tina Dunkley, Sandra Franks, and other artists who were mentoring, and that was right up my alley."
Since then, Alexander's camera has been a steady witness to Atlanta's stories. Early on, he told Parks he planned to document Black life for a decade to test whether freedom had truly arrived. Parks warned him no one would pay him to "just go around shooting what you want." Two decades later, at Alexander's 1988 "Blues Legacy" retrospective during the first National Black Arts Festival, Parks congratulated him: "Well, James, I see that you ran around and shot what you wanted to shoot."
At 90, Alexander shows no signs of doing anything different. His works live in collections across the nation. Still, his impact remains rooted in Atlanta's neighborhoods, art institutions, and music stages. Asked what keeps him working at 90, he answered simply: "I can still see."
