Black Migration to the U.S. (1/2). 2025. Screenprint and chine collé 22 x 28 in. Edition of 20. Printed and published by Graphicstudio, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. @Villalongo Studio LLC. Courtesy William Villalongo, Shraddha Ramani and USF Graphicstudio, Tampa, FL.
“The Georgia Negro” by W.E.B. Du Bois. Courtesy Library of Congress
In 1900, W.E.B. Du Bois organized a series of infographics on the progress of Black peoples after Emancipation, to be displayed as part of the American Negro Exhibit in the 1900 Paris Exposition world’s fair. Using the still-developing field of data visualization, the American Negro Exhibit worked to upend the conceit of Western superiority and inevitable “progress” of industrialization by rendering in stark relief the dynamic participation of Black peoples in American social and economic life, and their global participation in science, literature, and art.
THE PROJECT: Artist William Villalongo and urbanist Shraddha Ramani update and reimagine Du Bois’s infographics. Printing Black America: Du Bois’s Data Portraits in the 21st Century is an series of fine art print portfolios inspired the project of Du Bois and his team for the contemporary moment. Villalongo & Ramani create new images or “data portraits” using a range of printmaking techniques, current data and living projects by Black scholars, social scientist and activists. To achieve this, Villalongo & Ramani work in collaboration with centers for Printmaking in various regions of the United States and their communities. This project uses the original data portraits created for the American Negro Exhibit as a springboard for the critical possibilities found at the intersection of art and social science to render portraits of Black life in the 21st century.
Printing Black America will be released as six thematic portfolios published in editions of 20. Each portfolio will hold 5 images. They are First Impressions, Populations, Employment, Ownership, Education and Communities. The complete project collection include all 6 thematic portfolios for a total of 30 images. Inquire about thematic portfolios and complete collections available through our print publishing partners.
Our printmaking partners are USF Graphicstudio, Powerhouse Arts, Island Press, Highpoint Editions, Mullowney Printing Company and Paulson-Fontaine Press.
