Legendary Johnson Publishing Company HQ chronicled in images and words

When we look at the media landscape into which publishing legend John H. Johnson was born and raised, it is easier to understand why he felt that corrective representation and inclusion were necessary for Black Americans. That is why Johnson launched numerous consumer news and lifestyle publications, including Ebony and Jet magazines. According to Johnson at the time, “Ebony was founded to provide positive images for blacks in a world of negative images and non-images.”

When Ebony was founded, only about half a dozen among the thousands of mainstream feature films released by then can be readily identified as starring Black performers in leading roles; four were musicals.

That marginalization extended to periodicals. A content analysis of photographs in Life, Time, and Newsweek — massively popular publications that positioned themselves as national windows into American life and contemporary society — found Black representation in photographs in those publications averaged below 2% at the time Johnson began publishing.

The headquarters of Johnson’s pioneering Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) is the subject of a newly released monograph, 820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of the Johnson Publishing Company, an American Icon, by architectural and design photographer, artist, and educator Barabara Karant.

Designed by architect John Moutoussamy (tennis legend Arthur Ashe’s father in-law), the 11-story modernist building at 820 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago was commissioned in 1969 and opened in 1972. It stands, in and of itself, as a repudiation of prevailing stereotypes. The interiors’ saturated color, geometric patterns, animal prints, unusual forms, and dramatic textures punctuated by copious artwork and custom furniture are a stark contrast to the staid exterior, but radiate the same insistence on embodying and documenting an alternate vision of Black life.

Karant recently told the Amsterdam News that she spent 13 years documenting its interiors, which were vacated in 2012. “A lot of people were touring the building, and I had never been in when they had occupied it. I took a tour and I wanted to set up a project because the interiors were so unique. They needed to be documented,” she said.

Karant was an adjunct professor at Columbia College when they purchased the building from Johnson Publishing Company in 2010. “I didn’t necessarily anticipate that this would turn into the substantial long-term historical preservation project that it became.”

The large-format, 239-page book features a foreword by Deborah Willis and essays by Aaron Bryant, Cheryl Finley, Carla Williams, Jon Ott, Brenna Wynn Greer, and E. James West. The images bring to life Johnson’s vision and we can now read some aspects of that vision as Afrofuturist. A vast collection of vibrant interiors contrast and blend all at the same time. Said Karant, “Mr. Johnson said that every floor is different. Every floor has surprises.”

The book cover is a close-up of part of the famed Ebony test kitchen, dominated by marbled loops of olive, gold, purple, and cinnamon.

No two floors were the same; the office of Johnson’s wife, fashion trailblazer Eunice, was the only one decked out in a neutral palette. “Her particular floor was of a very different palette than other floors,” said Karant. African and modern art dot the vast landscape of JPC.

What most struck Karant about the space initially was its dynamism. “It had to be an amazing environment for people to create within.” For Karant, part of JPC’s significance lies in its building’s place in business and architectural history. “It was the first high-rise in Chicago built for a Black company, by a Black architect.”

For the book, Karant also incorporated first-person recollections from employees and others directly involved with JPC. “I felt it was really important to have employee recollections, because I didn’t work there. It was an incredible place that people were very proud of and very attached to. That content made it more than just a photo book.”

Karant’s book is a postscript. Her images document the physical space after its occupants had departed. There are few archival images. Karant believes this is a benefit. “Some people will just see empty spaces. Other people will see spaces that are enlivened by memory, and will be able to extrapolate the excitement of what once was. Other people will like it because it’s just such great graphic design and it’s awesome color and I’m a decent photographer, so the pictures are pretty and graphic and fun, and some are poignant.”

Johnson explicitly supported the Civil Rights Movement and saw JPC as being aligned with its aims. It is thus fitting to consider this book in the context of the current period of renewed political conflict over how Black history is preserved and presented. “I’ve worked on this project for 13 years,” Karant said. “Now it’s more than a photography book; it’s a preservation project, it’s a historical publication. I think it’s highly serendipitous, maybe, that it took me this long and that it’s coming out now, and I’m very grateful it’s coming out now because I think it’s very timely.”

Visit 820ebonyjet.com for more info.