The film explores the role of photography, since its rudimentary beginnings in the 1840s, in shaping the identity, aspirations, and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present. The dramatic arch is developed as a visual narrative that flows through the past 160 years to reveal black photography as an instrument for social change, an African American point-of-view on American history, and a particularized aesthetic vision.

A rich and lyrical tapestry that is both personal and epic in scope, Thomas Allen Harris’s extraordinary documentary, Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (TALD), is a unique examination of the way black photographers—and their subjects—have used the camera as a tool for social change from the time photography was invented to the present. TALD is a powerful and elegant engagement with the burden of representation and serves as a testament to the redemptive powers of creativity. Adapted from Sundance.