We Sort of People, 1997-1998, 2003, 2006

Extent:

3.5 Linear Feet (4 boxes)

Scope and content:

These black-and-white photographs were taken by Henry Horenstein in 1997, 2003, and 2006 as part of a project in collaboration with writer and historian Leslie Tucker to document a cluster of communities in southeastern Maryland in which the majority of inhabitants are of tri-racial descent, stemming from intermarriages over centuries between Native Americans, African Americans, and white people. The name of the series and project comes from the phrase "we sort of people," used by local inhabitants to refer to their community.

Subjects include individual men and women, as well as family groups with children, taken at their homes, in yards, at two churches, St. Ignatius (Chapel Point, Maryland), at a local bar, Proctor's Inn, and other places. Other images are of street signs, a fishing pier, barbershop, cemetery, and railroad tracks. Locations in Maryland include Bel Alton, Chapel Point, Hillcrest Heights, Port Tobacco, Temple Hills, and Waldorf. There are also photographs of former inhabitants of these small communities who emigrated to Washington, D.C., taken at their homes and at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic church in the Anacostia neighborhood, Southeast Washington.

With the exception of one large 19 7/8 x 15 7/8 inch print, 32 photographs measure 8x10 inches, and 46 measure 16x20 inches. Image dimensions are given with each print entry in this collection guide.

The images are all used in Tucker and Horenstein's documentary book, We sort of people (Kehrer Verlag, 2023).

From the publication's website: "Journalist and Writer Leslie Tucker and photographer Henry Horenstein began working together in 1997, when she invited him to Maryland to shoot a mysterious multiethnic family, the little-known Wesort clan: 'We sorts are different from you sorts.' The project started as a genealogical search for a family whose roots stretched back to the founding of the first Catholic colony, it grew into a mystery about the multi-ethnic origins of America, then became a race against time as the Wesorts and their descendants disappeared and their stories died. While Horenstein photographed the last generation of Proctors and their disappearing world, Tucker recorded the conversations she had with the wise women of the family. A living archive emerges, with voices that portray the complex realities of their lives in their own words, as seen through their eyes."

Biographical / historical:

From the foreword from the book, "Wesort of People," written by Horenstein's collaborator Leslie Tucker:

"The word 'Wesort' is controversial now. The term can be deeply offensive to those who lived in southern Maryland during the second half of the twentieth century. [Leslie's Aunt] Lonie used it liberally. It is used here with the utmost respect and diligence,as an identifier of a very specific group of families who survived together through America's turbulent birth and every day after. As Lonie says, 'Anybody see me walking up the street think I'm a White woman. Summertime, after I get sunburnt,my arms and everything, then I'm a Wesort. I'm not called a Negro. I'm called a Wesort. What that Wesort means is mixed breed.' While Lonie called herself a Wesort, others were called Wesorts, in U.S. census and military draft records; and some were categorized as 'Mulatto,' 'Wesort Colored,' and, eventually, as in Lonie's case, 'Black.' [Leslie's Aunt] Cinderella never used the word to describe herself or anyone else. I use the word 'Wesort' as Lonie did, asa means of making space for herself and others who defied classification."

Material specific details:

The photographs in the "Wesort of People" series were shot with Kodak Tri-X film rated at ISO 200. The square images were made with a Mamiya 6 medium-format twin-lens reflex and a 43mm lens. The rectangular photos were made with a Fuji GA645 medium-format rangefinder and a 45mm lens. Most of the photos taken at The Proctor's Inn were shot with a Canon F1 35mm SLR and a Metz flash with the head covered by diffusion material.

Physical facet:

78 prints

Dimensions:

8x10 inches, 16x20 inches

Contents

Using These Materials