Marvin And Morgan Smith: A Brief Summary

Marvin and Morgan Smith devoted their lives to visuals. The twin photographers defined Harlem life to anti lynching photographs. Together the brothers created incisive, poignant images that resembled Harlem from the 1930s to the 1950s. The twin’s early works consisted of them making sketches on slates. Their first years were spent in the poor share cropping system. The sons of sharecroppers were born in Nicholasville, Kentucky in 1910. Their first photographs were taken with a simple box camera, gifted to them by a white benefactor. The brothers began developing photos in their basement, often working for prominent white families in Lexington. They moved to Lexington as teenagers to pursue art and photography, and were the first in their family to graduate from Paul Lawrence Dunbar high school.
In 1933, the twins left Kentucky due to racism, and moved to Harlem New York, working as laborers at first. They eventually married identical twins who they shared an art class with. Only 3 years later on the same day the couples divorced. In 1939, the Smith brothers opened their own photographic studio on 125th Street called “M. Smith Photograpghy”, near the Apollo Theater. At
the time, music, dance, and art were thriving the Africa American renaissance in Harlem. The twins served as the Apollos official photographers. Performers, artist, and models congregated at the studio, establishing it as a meeting place. Their friend Joe Louis visited often and was like a brother figure to Marvin. Their photos recorded the history of African American entertainment, such as club scenes and events.
Marvin and Morgan became prominent photographers of everyday people as well as the greatest of Harlem.
The Smith brothers strived to depict their community in a good light. The Harlem studio remained open until 1968, during this time, the twins worked as sound technichians in televisions up until 1975 when they retired. The brothers connection was so strong that neither ever used the pronoun “I”. The twins were inseperable. People who knew them described them as being one person. Both brothers believed strongly in race pride and photographed the early civil rights movement in Harlem, boycotts, strikes, weddings, and everyday events. Due to lack of storage, most of their work was discarded and never seen again. Morgan Smith succumbed to testicular cancer, in turn Marvin had his own testicles
removed.