Doris Ulmann’s Roll, Jordan, Roll, published in 1933, documents the lives of African American plantation workers from the Gullah community at Lang Syne Plantation in South Carolina. This project, a collaboration with author Julia Peterkin, who wrote the accompanying text, showcases Ulmann’s transition from the Pictorialist tradition to a more modern documentary approach. By this point in her career, Ulmann was an established photographer, recognized for her ethnographic studies and portraiture of Appalachian and Southern communities. Employing a large-format camera and the photogravure process, Ulmann created images rich in tone and texture, offering an intimate portrayal of the daily lives and cultural traditions of the Gullah people.
The project was conceived during an era of significant social and cultural change in the United States, marked by modernization, racial tension, and a growing interest in preserving disappearing folk cultures. Ulmann’s work is part of the American Craft Revival movement and a wider artistic endeavor to preserve rural traditions threatened by industrialization. Her photographs highlight the dignity of labor, spirituality, and resilience within the Gullah community, presenting portraits of men, women, and children alongside depictions of agricultural work, religious gatherings, and social events. Her images counter prevailing racial stereotypes by portraying African Americans as individuals with rich cultural heritage, offering a narrative that contrasts with the dehumanizing depictions common in early 20th-century media.
Aesthetically, Roll, Jordan, Roll bridges Ulmann’s earlier pictorialist influences—seen in her soft focus and careful lighting—with a modernist attention to form and composition. Her use of natural light and static compositions fosters a contemplative tone, with the photogravure process adding a tactile, timeless quality to the images. By focusing on the individuality of her subjects, Ulmann’s portraits emphasize human connection and empathy, encouraging viewers to engage deeply with the lives depicted.
Exhibitions and publications have sustained the work’s visibility. Ulmann showed related prints at New York’s Delphic Galleries (1929) and in International Photography at the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art (1930); a baptism scene later appeared in MoMA’s The Family of Man (1955). Focused presentations—the Schomburg Center (1981); Roll, Jordan, Roll: The Gullah Photographs of Doris Ulmann (University of Oregon, 1994); Roots and Reeds (1998); and a 2018 survey in Naperville—kept the series in circulation, while retrospectives such as Vernacular Modernism: The Photography of Doris Ulmann (2018) provided broader context. Julia Peterkin’s earlier Pulitzer (1929) and the deluxe photogravure edition’s craftsmanship have supported its continued presence in collections, exhibitions, and scholarship.
