Institute for Arts and Media

Roland Charles

Roland Charles  (1938-2000)

Roland Charles was the founder and executive director of the Black Photographers of California and the Black Gallery.  His photographs have been included in numerous national and international exhibitions as well as in a number of books and numerous private collections including the California African American Museum, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The Getty Center for the History of Arts and The Humanities. He was a founding member of the Jazz Photographers Association and of Photo Friends of the Los Angeles Public Library. Roland also documented life in Bob Town, Louisiana over a period of more than thirty years.

Collection Includes:
Alice Coltrane
Berry Gordy
Billy Eckstein-Singer
Dick Gregory
Muhammad Ali
Richard Pryor
Rosa Parks
Whitman Mayo-Actor
William Marshall