"Elise-Forrest-Harleston" (February 4,1891-1970)

Was the first female African American Photographer in South Carolina.She operated a photography studio at 118 Calhoun Street in Charleston with her genre painter husband Edwin Harleston from 1922-1932.At the insistence of her then fiancé Edwin Harleston,Elise left her home in South Carolina and traveled to New York to enroll in the E.Brunel School of Photography in 1919.She was the only female of color attending the  school and learned many photographic techniques from her German teachers;after graduation Elise continued her studies at Tuskegee University in Alabama,she worked under  C.M.Batty.Under his tutelarge,Elise became a part of the artistic community that challenged racist stereotypes of African Americans and her works reflected the image of  "the New Negro."Elise had married Edwin in 1920 and remained a devoted wife to her artists husband often taking the photographs of the subjects he intended to paint.While his paintings went on to garner critical acclaim,the contributions of his wife were rarely mentioned.


After kissing the lips of his deathly ill daddy,Edwin died of pheumonia in 1931.Elise close up her studio and remarried a school teacher,John J.Wheeler,within the year.She moved to Baltimore,Chicago and then Southern California,where she remained until her death.According to her great-niece Mae Whitlock Gentry,Elise never spoke of her relationship with Edwin or her work as a photographer.After her death of a brain aneurysm in 1970,her family found Edwin's letters and a cache of almost two dozen glass plate negatives that she had saved.