One Shot

The Hampton University Museum and Archives is proud to present this edition of works by Reuben V. Burrell. This publication is an achievement in part because of the extraordinary attention to detail exhibited by Mr. Burrell and provides only a glimpse into the grand magnitude of photographs and negatives that constitute his life's work.& ; & ; & ; Referring to himself as a "self-taught," photographer, Reuben v. Burrell experimented, read and practiced becoming a master known for the sensitivity of the lens and quality of his points. His images capture the icons of African American culture and the alumni of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) over a period of six decades and counting, providing a pictorial catalogue of the academic and vocational excellence Hamptonians have shared with America. & ; & ; A very modest man, Burrell has impacted the Hampton University community through his generosity to students through the years, as noted in the Visual Memories shared by Hampton Alumni, Dr. Roslyn Walker, Senior Curator of the Arts of Africa, the Americas, and Pacific/ The Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. Mr. Burrell is truly a visual griot, still at the age of 93, there is hardly a face that he does not recognize. If the saying holds true that a picture is worth a thousand words, a Reuben V. Burrell photograph is a monograph, a captured treasure.& ; & ; The Hampton University Museum and Archives, the oldest African American museum in the United States, has within its collection over 10 million documents and more than 9,000 items of fine art and artifacts. Founded in 1868, the museum became the first institution to collect African American art in 1894 with the acquisition of the internationally acclaimed work by the painter, Henry O. Tanner, The Banjo Lesson. The Museum also publishes the International Review of African American Art (IRAAA), a journal of scholarship and critical review now in its 35th year and the only publication of its kind in America.