About The Photographer:

James A. (J.A.) Palmer specialized in photographs of the African-American community. He took family and personal portraits as well as images of their homes and scenes from cotton fields and other locations where they worked. Palmer's stereographs of the lives of African-Americans at work provide important information about how both white South Carolinians and African-Americans adjusted to the new reality. In 1875, he advertised this collection as illustrative of "Southern plantation life" in The Philadelphia Photographer (March 1875 pg 76) See ad below....

In 1866, Palmer moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he worked as a photographer. He moved to Aiken in 1870. He was a prolific photographer at a time when the technology was still in its infancy. Palmer's continuous documentation of the lives of African-Americans before and during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877) placed him in a rarefied company.

At that time, African Americans who were freed from slavery due to the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) or who had been soldiers fighting for their freedom during the Civil War tried to assimilate into a society that did not welcome them. Schools and churches were established to provide a means to gain education by people of all ages and establish places of worship. During this period, citizenship of African-Americans was to be resolved, but they had the right to vote, purchase property, and gain employment.

Most photographers at that time were uninterested in photographing African-Americans for a variety of financial and social reasons. Some specifically advertised their services as white only or limited the times they could be seen. Palmer's stereographs illustrated society's bias. Never once in all his stereographs do African-Americans share a physical space with white people. Some of his customers were also invariably interested in his images as way to witness people they thought to be different from them. In 1888, Ezekiel Jeremy Charles Wood, one of his customers, "bought a set to send to the Smithsonian Institute" to call attention to the "strange customs of our race."

While documenting scenes from black communities, Palmer mostly stayed away from any kind of political commentary. He gave his images simple and descriptive titles. However, there were also times in his career when he used his platform to champion the political rights of African-Americans, or, at the very least, to draw sympathy for them. 

While he lived in Aiken, Palmer took advantage of its status as a winter resort and produced images of everything from the exteriors and interiors of churches to homes, public buildings, railroads and textile mills. During the 1880s, he also took pictures of Augusta, Georgia and some parts of Florida. In 1889, he contributed sixty-three photographs to illustrate Aiken, South Carolina as a Health and Pleasure Resort.

He worked as a photographer until his death in 1896.

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