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Historical photographs by Bruce Roberts from his new book "Just Yesterday - North Carolina People and Places", along with other black and white photographs listed here, are hand printed from his original negatives by Bruce Roberts himself, on silver Iilford MGIV pearl silver process photographic paper. His signature can be found on the lower back of each. These are NOT digitally printed photographs!
Unless otherwise noted, these prints are 11x14 and come temporarily mounted in a medium charcoal matt to size 16x20.
Each silver print is $160, which includes UPS Ground shipping, 2-5 day delivery. If you need expedited shipping, please contact us.
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" Suzy " Roberts said of this image, “This is one of my most famous photographs. It was taken at an old two-room school near Rockingham, North Carolina, during a summer in the mid-1960s. An innovative program by the North Carolina Fund had set up a daycare for local children. The program went on to serve as a model for America’s domestic Peace Corps. _____________________________ |
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" Mary Poppins" Roberts commented, “Kids can defy logic and gravity––as seen in this picture taken in a small town north of Charlotte. This girl must have just seen Mary Poppins, and, like her, ‘…practically perfect in every way.’”
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" Going Home" First published in Our State: Down Home in North Carolina, this photograph was taken in the early 1960s near Maxton, North Carolina. It is one of the first silhouette photographs the photographer ever took and it won several pictorial awards in North Carolina. Of this image, Roberts said, “It has always been one of my favorites. Somehow my eyes go from the trees to the two figures and then focus on the young boy. It was taken on a farm in late afternoon as the farmer and his son were headed home.”
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" Elvis at the Start" Roberts commented on this image, “It was a slow news day at the Tampa Tribune and the city editor sent me over to the National Guard Armory to photograph a new singer that ‘Colonel Parker’ had just found and thought was the hottest thing around. The Colonel and the city editor were friends and I suspected this was just a way to get the Colonel’s latest protégée’s picture in the newspaper. Imagine my surprise when I found the place packed with girls. They were all there to see a kid named ‘Elvis.’ A couple of the girls who couldn’t get in waved to him through the chain link fence and he smiled back. Just a small gesture from this charming young man conjured up dreamy looks on their pretty faces. The show was outstanding and the girls went crazy. But we couldn’t use the photos because the editor said it was something about the way he moved his hips that was just too suggestive….”
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"Billy Graham" About this image, Roberts commented, “There’s nothing that commands more respect than a general on the battlefield or Billy Graham on a mountaintop. Each spring for generations, people have gather at Grandfather Mountain for the annual “Singing on the Mountain” event. The year that Graham appeared, nearly a century ago, traffic backed up for miles. It was reported that more than 100,000 people filled the meadow below to hear him.”
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Mrs. Locklear in the Kitchen “In 1959, after using one and one-half rolls of film to get the perfect photo of Mr. Locklear, a Lumbee Indian,” Roberts stated, “I became aware of Mrs. Locklear waiting patiently in her kitchen for me to finish. So she would not be offended at being overlooked, I took a few frames of her just as she was by the stove in their home near Maxton in the eastern part of the state. “I was so certain I had a prize-winning photo of Mr. Locklear that I didn’t even print the photo of her until twenty-five years later. It was only then, with a small bit of common sense that comes with age that I noticed Mrs. Locklear’s photo was the real winner. But now, looking at her smile in the photo, I think that she knew then that she was the winner. They and their home exemplified to me an unassuming, frontier lifestyle.”
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Pump and Pail “There was beauty in the simple things at the Locklear farm near Maxton in 1959: the pump and pail, the Bible and kerosene lamp, the pots and pans on the wall in the kitchen. They spoke to self-sufficiency and resourcefulness,” Roberts narrated.
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Southern Faces and JFK Roberts commented on this picture, “When John F. Kennedy campaigned in fall 1960, he was the center of a whirlwind of admirers as he left the Charlotte Coliseum. This picture appeared in the Charlotte Observer and was picked up by Associated Press and ran in every major newspaper in America. “In this picture, he is surrounded by a sea of faces as he makes his way to his car. Kennedy, by a narrow margin, won North Carolina; however, it wasn’t the politics that interested me, it was his charisma that gave the feeling that Camelot just might be real. I’ll never forget the story he opened his speech with. He told of the Connecticut legislature that was meeting in session during the early 1800s when an eclipse darkened the noonday sky. There was a clamor amongst the politicians to adjourn immediately and go home. A voice from the back differed. He said, ‘Mr. Speaker, I ask that candles be brought. We must remain here and be found doing our work if indeed this is the end of the world.’” _____________________________ |
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Cleaning the Nets Crewmembers of the Ken-Pat empty their nets after a successful haul off the coast of Cape Lookout and in the vicinity of Morehead City and Beaufort, North Carolina, in 1964. Roberts said of this photograph, “I went out with Captain Virgil Styron to shoot a series on net fishermen. I recall the incredible load of fish he got. I used my Nikon F to get this and a series of photographs of the old technique used by these expert fishermen. The image was published in Our State: Down Home in North Carolina” and is still one of my favorites.”
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A Quiet Day at the Lunch Counters Roberts revealed the details behind this image, “The day following the Greensboro sit-ins in February 1960, the ones took place in Charlotte the next day and immediately closed its downtown lunch counters. “In the photo, a waitress can be seen in the background as these students from Johnson C. Smith University wait for service or arrest. They didn’t get either that day because the leaders of the sit-in had worked out an agreement with Jesse James, Charlotte’s Chief of Police. If the demonstration was conducted peacefully and orderly, no arrests would be made. Although there was obvious tension and apprehension, nothing happened that day except the end of segregated lunch counters. When they re-opened, seats at the lunch counters were available to anyone who wanted to sit there regardless of age, religion, or race.” _____________________________ |
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Diane Playing Dress Up This make-believe wedding on the campus of the Thompson Orphanage in Charlotte during summer 1960 was part of a picture story on American orphanages published in America Illustrated, to portray American life to Russian readers. Diane’s infectious and obvious happiness represented the bright side of American life even in what one could imagine as a dreary and depressing setting. What Diane and her young friends were doing is what we call “dress up” or “pretend,” but it is more than that—the game represents hopes and dreams—and the reminder not to take life too seriously. The orphanage, which is still raising children on a new rural campus just outside of Charlotte, turned out to be a happy place. The kids there have a wonderful quality of focusing on the future, not the past. _____________________________ |
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Like His Father Before Him “In the isolated corners of Asheville’s western high mountains, Doc Gaine Cannon drove a four-wheel drive Scout to navigate the mud roads and reach his patients in cabins and country stores,” recalled Roberts. “He was traveling the same dirt roads that his father, a doctor before him, traveled on horseback, carrying medicine and instruments in his saddlebags. The picture of Doc arriving at the cabin was the opening photo in a 14-page story on Doc for the Time-Life book on Physicians.”
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CapeHatteras Through Sea Grass Taken in 1964, long before the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved, this dusk image was captured on a Nikon F camera using Kodak Tri-X film. It was printed in Roberts’ dark room on fiber-based silver paper. Roberts said of this photograph, “I remember the year clearly because the Bonner Bridge to Hatteras Island had just been completed the year before. Being able to drive to the barrier island instead of taking the car ferry opened the way for thousands of tourists to visit the more remote areas of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. But back then, there was a feeling of being alone––it was a different time. When I made that long drive from the new bridge to the lighthouse on a chilly February day, I don’t think I passed another car. I hear now that over two million people visit the lighthouse each year. This clearly points out the difference that a good road can make.” _____________________________ |
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Mr. Locklear When Sir Walter Raleigh returned to North Carolina after years of delay caused by the war with Spain there was no trace of his "Lost Colony" except the letters "CRO" carved in a tree near the deserted fort. For years explorers and historians have researched the fate of this first English settlement in America. There is no written record as to what happened, however, in Robeson County in eastern North Carolina where I lived for a time, there is a tribe of Indians now called Lumbee, but bore the name "Croatan" in earlier years. Some Lumbee Indians have old English names including “Locklear,” the surname of the gentleman shown here in 1960 reading his Bible, and “Oxendine” and “Britt.” A few of these same names appeared on the roster of the Lost Colony. For a photographer it was like finding the original faces of America and I will always be grateful for the chance to photograph them. Perhaps DNA testing will prove one day that these are descendents of America's first English settlers. _____________________________ |
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Buttermilk Sky In 1961, northern Mecklenburg County still had real farms all around Charlotte. This land is likely a subdivision now, and I doubt I could ever find the exact spot again. But the image is forever etched in my mind and how glad I am that my camera was at hand when the sunset arranged this beautiful artwork of sky, horizon, farm equipment, and a farmer on his way home with pails in hand.
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More to come! |
