A True Likeness is one of my favorite photography books. I refer to its images often. Richard Samuel Roberts is not as well know as other commercial photographers of his era who expertly documented life and rise of the African middle class in the south between the years of 1920-1936. A great companion piece to Black Fortunes as a True Likeness includes images of Greenwood but emphasis is in South Carolina. Perhaps A True Likeness is the most cohesive source of information on the life as well as of two hundred image selects from a much larger collection of three thousand glass plates of Roberts work released posthumously. Edited by Thomas L. Johnson and Phillip C. Dunn in collaboration with his estate. Self-taught (aren’t we all), a man of many gifts. Picture shown is of my 1986 print.
