citypaper: archives

Camera Obscura
Joseph Mills doesn't do things halfway. That explains his photography, his personal relationships, and his giant pumpkins.

Cover Story

The disaffected have certain ceremonies, and the black man in the fur coat is celebrating his own private Fourth of July. In public, mind you—in front of a Florsheim shoe store somewhere in downtown Washington, to be exact. In one hand he holds a long black umbrella; in the other, a small American flag. Who knows? Maybe it is the Fourth of July—but if so, he's drastically overdressed for the weather, as is apparent from the people passing by him in shirtsleeves. He holds various poses—arms outstretched, arms held straight out in front of him—that give you the impression he's semaphoring to a ship only he can see.

We've all seen him—or at least someone like him. If you've lived in the city for a while, you've undoubtedly seen hundreds of his type. But usually not like this—not on the walls of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, his haunting sojourn on that anonymous Washington street corner caught forever by photographer Joseph Mills, who has done as remarkable a job of capturing spiritual pain on film as anyone since Robert Frank.

With his neat ponytail and glasses, Mills, 51, looks like your typical mild-mannered liberal-arts professor, not a man who spent much of the '80s on the streets photographing the District's psychic casualties because, he says, "I was hurting so bad mentally and I was looking for people who were in the same space as I was. Those people were all mirrors for me at the time."... Continued

Issue of Mar. 28 - Apr. 3, 2003

News and Features

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Music

  • Rock Slide
    Music Review
  • Apple O'
    Music Review
  • Slow Motion Daydream
    Music Review
  • Last of the Mississippi Jukes
    Music Review
  • Superfly
    A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
    Music Review
  • Matching Mole
    A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
    Music Review
  • Sue
    A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
    Music Review
  • Great Ladies Sing the Blues
    A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
    Music Review
  • Oh Boy Classics Presents Joe Tex
    A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
    Music Review
  • Euphoria
    A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
    Music Review
  • New Orleans Funk:
    A few of the things we're listening to this week, in no particular order
    Music Review

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  • Production Values
    There's a lot wrong with the way American theater develops new plays. In D.C., a few companies are helping set things right.
    Arts
  • String Theory
    Artifacts
  • Grays Area
    Artifacts

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