Troy, Alabama Cultural Arts Center Celebrates Artist Holman Johnson's Big Picture

The first location of the Troy Post Office has been in existence for 100 years. The building which sits at the corner of Academy and Market streets in Troy, Alabama had been vacated and run down for so many years that the City was considering tearing it down. That's when citizens stepped in and decided they didn't want that to happen. In 2008, the Johnson Center for the Arts opened. It stands as a reminder that that which is old and valuable should be preserved.

In October, the old post office building turned 100 years old. What better way to celebrate than to commemorate the work of Manuel Holman Johnson (1910-1990), locally and nationally acclaimed photographer. Looking Through the Lens: 100 Years of Photographs as the exhibit is called will be available at the Cultural Arts Center until November 13th. Johnson's work includes 16x20 black and white portraits of life in rural Alabama. The exhibit also features the work of D.L. Hightower (1899-1993) from nearby Clayton, Alabama. The two artists in film - Johnson a Troy boy, and Hightower - captured the lives, architecture and living conditions in southeast Alabama during the Great Depression, World War II and the Civil Rights Movement.

Johnson's photographic essays have proved over the years to be valuable, both locally and nationally. Because of his love for all people and his keen eye, he was able to access people and places from all walks of life that may have otherwise been ignored in history. Through his photographs, viewers get a feel of the community as it was "way back when."

Johnson, born in Dale County, Alabama, developed a hankering for taking pictures with George Kodak's somewhat new contraption called a camera. As a navy officer during World War II, Johnson sharpened his skills. By 1946, he opened a photography business in Troy.

One of Johnson's sons, Jo Harvell said, "He was everywhere in the area. He could be up a tree, on a telephone pole, on a roof, or hanging out of a helicopter." This describes the lengths Johnson went to get a photograph.

Johnson, along with the old post office would have turned 100 years old this year. What a fitting celebration to bring them both together. Johnson's work is featured on the first floor of the Cultural Arts Center. Hightower's 16x20 black and white prints are exhibited in the basement. They both provide a glimpse of the not so distant, historically unsettling past and a vastly changing agrarian society. The Looking Through the Lens exhibit offers something for every viewer. For the old timers who had a hard time letting go. . . .To those of us who welcomed the change. . . . It offers revelatory knowledge to younger people who have no clue what life in the deep south or during the Depression was like.

The Johnson Center for the Arts hosts various exhibits throughout the year. In December, they will begin the Christmas Tree showcase.