Actually, many black people avoided photographs in my day, afraid that their image might get in the wrong hands and be used against them. They said a picture contains your spirit, and I’m inclined to believe this, since cameras focus on and capture the eyes so well. Sometimes you can look at a person in a picture and when you move, their eyes follow you. I’m not sure what to make of this, but it’s something spiritual, I believe. And back in the ’40s, people protected their spirit with their lives. It’s all they had.
