Roland Freeman
| Roland L. Freeman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
27 July 1936 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Occupation | Photographer, quilter |
| Website | http://www.tgcd.org/ |
Roland L. Freeman (born July 27, 1936) is a photographer and award-winning documenter of Southern folk culture and African-American quilters. He is the president of The Group for Cultural Documentation based in Washington, D.C.
Roland Freeman was born in Baltimore, Maryland. As a youth, his future life’s work was inspired when he discovered the Depression-era photography of Gordon Parks and Roy DeCarava, which focused on raising social consciousness, as well as the work of Farm Security Administration photographers. When Freeman was 14, he met author and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, who would also be a great influence on his subsequent career.
Freeman served in the US Air Force from 1954 to 1958. He began taking photographs in the DC area in 1963, inspired by the March on Washington.
In 1968, he not only participated in but also documented the Poor People's Campaign and the Mule Train trip from Marks, Mississippi, to the nation's capital.
He worked as a stringer for Time and Magnum Photos, including coverage as a White House photographer. In 1997, Freeman was named the Eudora Welty Visiting Professor of Southern Studies at Millsaps College (Jackson, MS).
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