As a lead photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, Charles "Teenie" Harris chronicled black life in the Hill District of Pittsburgh for more than 40 years. His work, which is currently archived in the Carnegie Museum of Art, is comprised of approximately 80000 images, some 60885 of which have been digitized. The research we present here is derived from these digital assets.
In this chapter of our investigation, we examine the ratios of width to height, or image aspect ratios, that Teenie Harris commonly used in his photographs. The aspect ratio can heavily influence how a photograph is composed.
We began by computing the aspect ratios of the 60K Teenie digital photo collection. We discovered that 17193 photos (29%) were vertical (so-called "portrait" orientation), 39670 photos (68%) were horizontal ("landscape" orientation), and just 1453 (2%) photos were square (1:1). The bar graphs below show a distribution of the ratios as well as their corresponding orientation.
According to the charts, the most common aspect ratio was 0.79, or a 4:5. The second most frequent (but significantly less frequent) ratio was 0.75, which means some of his photos have a 4:3 aspect ratio. Teenie Harris only owned two cameras in his lifetime despite being one of the most prominent photographers in Pittsburgh. This fact alone explains why only two aspect ratios appear in the data. We know that his first camera was the Rolleicord medium-format camera that he used to make the 4:5 photos. He used this camera at his photographic studio at 2128 Centre Avenue in the Hill District until approximately the 1970s.
From left to right: An example of a horizontal photo with a 4:3 aspect ratio, an example of a vertical photo with a 5:4 aspect ratio, and a typical example of a square Teenie Harris photo: A close-up and centered portrait.
Overall from this information we can conclude that we have 5 different types of photos: vertical and horizontal 4:3 photos, vertical and horizontal 4:5 photos, as well as square photos. Each type lends itself to different patterns. For example, Teenie Harris took a large amount of group shots at major events for the Pittsburgh Courier. This type of photo natural lends itself to a horizontal orientation. Likewise, almost all of his square photos feature one person sitting up straight, tall, and centered like the classic yearbook photo.
This information allows us to look at content in the photographs relative to the borders, which is a good foundation for the rest of the investigations.