‘Parallel Visions’ showcases two extraordinary photographers

In 1967, two American photographers crossed paths during a chance meeting, sparking decades of friendship, mentorship and mutual respect. Nearly 60 years later, Wilson Library is sharing the powerful story behind that relationship and the profound impact of Burk Uzzle’s and Roland Freeman’s work in a new exhibit.

Now open, “Parallel Visions: The Photographic Legacies of Burk Uzzle and Roland L. Freeman” showcases 80 photographs in three exhibition spaces throughout Wilson Library. While the exhibit features Uzzle’s and Freeman’s work separately in some spaces, curators Stephen Fletcher and Steve Weiss collaborated to weave the photographers’ shared passion for documenting significant moments in American history and culture within Black communities throughout the galleries.

“We’re trying to tell two people’s stories through their work and how their lives intersected,” said Fletcher, photographic archivist for the North Carolina Collection. The collection acquired Uzzle’s materials — ranging from photos featured in Life magazine to the cover of the official Woodstock album — through the Kohler Foundation in 2019, which also aided the acquisition of Freeman’s work in 2023 by the Southern Folklife Collection.

“A lot of Freeman’s field work was in the American South, particularly in Mississippi, and connected with a number of collections in the Southern Folklife Collection,” said Weiss, the collection’s curator. “He also did field work with a variety of folklorists, including professor Glenn Hinson here at UNC.”

Uzzle has local connections, too. Born in Raleigh, he began taking photos in middle school in Hickory, North Carolina. The News & Observer hired Uzzle as a staff photographer after he graduated from Dunn High School in 1956.

Freeman passed away in 2023, but both curators met with Freeman and Uzzle multiple times before Freeman’s death to talk about the photographers’ friendship and influences. As far as Fletcher and Weiss are aware, it’s the first time the photographers’ works have been exhibited together. In narrowing down the small selection for the exhibit, “we tried to find photographs that had a relationship, to visually give the feel of the connections that may have been there, even if they’re somewhat intangible,” said Fletcher.

Much of that comes together in the Saltarelli Room on the second floor of Wilson. In the center of the space, one of Freeman’s photographs that documented the Mule Train, a caravan of wagons pulled by mules from Mississippi to Washington, D.C., in the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death in 1968, hangs next to Uzzle’s photograph that captured the same type of wagon used for King’s funeral.

Photographs of Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral and the Poor People’s Campaign Mule Train showcase common ties through the photographers’ relationship and work in the 1960s.

For both curators, working on the exhibit struck a personal chord. Fletcher studied photography in college, and Weiss discovered a connection to one of the pieces while looking through the inventory, taken at a memorial service for folklorist Ralph Rinzler at the National Mall in 1994.

“I used to live in Washington, D.C., and I when I came across this photograph, I realized I was at this event,” said Weiss. “I remembered seeing Roland there. I can even remember what he was wearing and watching him take this photo. At the time I didn’t even realize who it was.”

Weiss watched Freeman take this photograph in 1994, and later got to know all three men through his work in the Southern Folklife Collection. Left to right: Bill Monroe, Mike Seeger, and Guy Carawan. (Submitted photo)

The curators hope that the exhibit inspires people to dig deeper into history, culture and the photographers’ careers through the additional hundreds of thousands of items in both collections.

“We want to tell their stories through their work so that people can become familiar with the collections and come back to the libraries to use those for research and areas of study,” said Fletcher.

“It’s a treasure trove for the humanities,” added Weiss.