"Robert H.Mcneill" (December 19,1917-mAY 27,2005)

Photographer,was born in Washington,D.C.,into a middle-class family.His daddy was a physician,and his mama was an educator.In the 1930s he attended Dunbar High School, where his classmates included future photographers Harrison Allen and brothers Bobby and George Scurlock, sons of prominent African American photographer Addison Scurlock. Harrison recalled that on several occasions the boys walked from school to Scurlock's photography studio at Ninth and U Streets to watch him work.this sparked their interest in pursuing photography, first as a hobby, then as a career. The scurlocks later took over daddy's studio,and Harrison became a photographer for the Department of Labor.Robert entered Howard University as a pre-med student he kept his skills by photographing events,particularly celebrity vistors to the university.When Olympic track star Jesse Owens made campus visit,Robert snapped a picture of him standing with university president Mordecai Johnson,surrounded by hundereds of students. Robert sold the photograph to fourteen African American newspapers on the East Coast. Through this experience,he saw the importance of photography to the African American press: Images of the lives and accomplishments of African Americans were central to the newspapers' uplift mission and by producing them,African American photographs could earn a study living. In 1936 Robert went to New York and enrolled in the New York Institute of Photography.During the 1930s, photography-driven magazines had become increasing important and popular. Like mainstrain publications Life and Look, African American publications of this type employed many photographers to illustrate their reports on African American communities around the country.Dutton Furguson,editor of Flash! magazine, asked Robert,still a student, to photograph the Bronx Slave Market,an open-air space Walton Avenue where women gathered and pontential employers often hired them for day labor.Dutton gave Robert a three-page spread to document a day in the lifes of these women. Flash! published thirteen of  Robert's photographs of not only women waiting for work opportunities but also employed women work-scrubbing floors and cooking meals for the meager wages 20-30 cents and hour.Subsequently,Robert became a regular feature photographer for Flash! and for Washington, D.C., office of Otto McClarrin's NewsPic magazine.In 1040 Robert was inivited to participated in a Federal Writers' Project study under guidance of Writer Sterling Brown. Led by Roscoe Lewis,Robert and other members of the all-African American staff traveled to Virginia.Robert role was to photograph African American life,work, and leisure in the aftermath of the Great Depression.Despite the initial relutctance of many subjects  to be photographed,they were ultimately casual and relaxed in front of Robert's camera. The result was a body of work that illustrated Robert's growing mastery of photography and his skills in the darkroom. One photography,entitled Spring Planting,portrays a farmer riding on his plow,and by using the darkroom technique of burning the corners of the print on each side of the farmer's head, he drew the viewer's eye to the man's countenance.Although other photos may have adequately documented farm laborers, Spring Planting compelled its audience to recognize the farmer's humanity.At the completion of the Negro in Virginia project, Robert returned home and launched the McNeill News Service.He ran his studio in the back of the first floor of his family's home in Washington, D.C.'s prominent home while his daddy used the front entrance for his medical practice.The basement served as his darkroom. His former classmate Harrison became his technician.He and Harrison operated the business together until World War II,when both were called to service in 1942 within days of each other.When they returned, Harrison took a job with the Library of Congress,and Robert returned to photography.He and fellow photographer Larry Grymes started Gem Photography in a studio located at Thirteenth and U Streets and continued to supply African American press with candid photographs of businesses, social functions, and local national celebrities.The business was slow, and in 1950 Robert closed down his studio and accepted work as a government photographer, first for the Naval Gun Factory and later the Pentagon,the State department in 1956, where he remained as chief of the photography branch until his retirement in 1978.When he was not photographing heads of state,Robert gave back to the photographic community.He remained active as a member of the Fotocraft Camera Club, which had been organized around 1938. FotoCraft was an offshoot of the photography program offered by the Twelfth Street YMCA,the first Y founded for African Americans.As a professional photographer,he frequently returned to conduct FotoCraft workshops on photography and darkroom work for aspiring photographers and hobbyists.He also juired some of the members shows.Held in esteen by his peers,Robert saw his work exhibited in local, national,and international venues. His studio was one of four photo studios featured in Visual journal: Harlem and D.C. in the Thirties and forties, developed by the Smithsonian's Center for African American History and Culture in 1996.The exhibit and publication of the same title featured the work of Gordon Parks and Morgan & and Marvin Smith in New York and the Scurlock studio and Robert in Washington, D.C. in 1998 the Exposure Group African American photographers Association honored him with their Maurice Sorrell Lifetime Achievement Award.