It was a sunny day in 1970 when Don Thompson walked past parked bulldozers on Greenwood Avenue and entered the Baltimore Barbershop.
Once inside, Thompson talked with owner David Gardner about what was happening and what was to come as workers made progress clearing space for Interstate 244.
The barber, who had worked in that space for over 20 years, looked out of the window as crews started up the machinery and resumed the work of “urban renewal.”
Thompson lifted his camera to take a picture of Gardner watching the bulldozers destroy neighboring brick buildings.
“Every time I see this image, I really get a little emotional,” Thompson said Wednesday as he examined the picture hanging on the wall of a Cherry Street gallery.
The photographer had been working to collect stories of those impacted by what he calls “the second massacre of Greenwood.” He promised Gardner he’d return the following day to get more of his story.
“When I came back the next day his business was destroyed — bulldozed over. He was gone,” Thompson said. “I never saw him again.”
Thompson said that image is probably his most iconic and “really hits the heart of what I was trying to do on Greenwood.”
It is the first photo visitors will see when they enter Hulett Collection, 1311 E. 15th St., when “Don Thompson: Visions of Time and Transformation” opens with an artist reception at 5 p.m. Saturday.
The displayed works span from 1968 to the present. It includes his most celebrated works, flora still lifes, Polaroid manipulations and, shown publicly for the first time, recent photographs that mark a return to the documentary style that defined his early career. It runs through Sept. 5.
Gallery owner Michael Hulett called Thompson “one of the indelible lines in the history of photography.”
“It means everything to me to host this,” said Hulett, who has curated more than 100 shows in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, London and Paris. “Having grown up here and having been in the photography world for two decades now, I can speak to most of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, never knowing that one of them is still alive and lives here in Tulsa, and I’m able to show him this weekend with the most comprehensive exhibit of his lifetime.”
Some of the 88-year-old photographer’s work is in Philbrook Art & Gardens’ permanent collection. More museums are in talks to add his work to their archives. With this show, collectors can own a piece of Tulsa’s past made through the lens of one of the city’s greatest photographers. Prints range in price from $750 to $1,500.
“What I was trying to do was try to be a witness to history, trying to give people an opportunity to see what was going on,” Thompson said. “My whole objective was to be a witness to it and to photograph it for future generations.”
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