The Black Prince
Date2006
MediumArchival pigment print
DimensionsImage: 40 × 50 inches (101.6 × 127 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase.
Object number2023.44
On View
Not on viewCollections
Copyright© 2006 Steven Jay Bliss.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextSavannah-based photographer Steven J. Bliss worked on the series Boys from 1999 to 2009. While Bliss says that the photographs are specifically about the childhood of his two sons, he believes that the images can apply to “two boys growing up anywhere … their equanimity and straightforward response to the camera, their humanity, reads as and relates to all times and gender and circumstance.”
Because Bliss used an 8 x 10 camera, a piece of equipment that requires a lengthy set up, he often staged the shots. In this photograph, he positioned the boys and their bicycles to mimic the 19th-century history painting The Black Prince at Crécy by Julian Story, on view at the Telfair Academy. The retelling of the aftermath of a Hundred Years’ War battle through the boys perhaps speaks to how situations can take on the scale and emotional weight of an epic battle when we are young.