The Life and Business of Florestine Perrault Collins
Collins was a businesswoman who overcame gendered limitations, cultivating a space for herself and community members in her photography studio. In an interview with Dr. Anthony, grand-niece of Collins, Betty Goudeau Wethers, an employee in the 1940s, described Collins’s expert leadership:
“She ran the business and she took care of business.”
When she opened her studio, Collins was the first and only Black female photographer in the city. Across the country, 101 African American women were listed as professional photographers in the 1920 Census. Collins used her skills and passion to support herself at a time when other people with similar social identities were not doing the same.
Changemaker
In addition to hosting vibrant parties and social gatherings, Florestine and her second husband, Herbert Collins, were engaged in community activism. They joined the Central Congregational Church, a community stronghold dedicated to promoting racial equality. They were members of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Collins also transformed her studio into a nurturing space, starting a holiday charity for underprivileged kids.
Family First
Collins had a sixth grade education when she left school to work. It was the support of her grandmother, Octavie Jules, and her mother, Emilie Perrault, who completed household tasks that allowed her to devote herself to her photography business.
At a time when most black women learned photography from a male family member, Collins was a mentor figure to her younger brother, Arthur. She taught him photography, a skill he later used to make a living. In 1936, he and his wife, Gladys, opened Perrault’s Studio, just a few blocks down from Collins on South Rampart.
Finding Her Niche
Collins specialized in the photography of traditionally feminine subjects, mobilizing racial and gendered limitations to her advantage. Her photographs of women and children are often hand-colored. These portraits showcase self-expression beyond a racialized and masculine gaze, redefining negative stereotypes surrounding black motherhood.
Collins specifically sought out young subjects, a fact indicated plainly in this 1925 advertisement in the New Orleans Herald which states “I Like to Make Children’s Pictures.” While this choice was likely motivated by knowledge of how to make herself most marketable, photographing Black children as a Black woman is a reclamation of agency and power.
Her studio became a space for Black mothers and children to perform gender relations in dignified and celebratory ways. Ruth Barthelemy, mother of five, described how she took each of her children to two places: the church for baptism, and the photographer. Collins was her photographer. She challenged the negative imagery of Black motherhood by picturing Black babies as joyful and loved.
From Left to Right: Lionel Barthelemy Jr. (1937), Theodore “Teddy” St. Leger (1940), Joseph Sordelet Jr (1923).
In First Frame, prelude to SEEING BLACK: Black Photography in New Orleans 1840 & Beyond, curator Shana M. griffin reimagines the parlor room of Florestine Perrault Collins at the New Orleans African American Museum. Check out the virtual version of this 2022 to 2023 exhibition here:
Image Credits
Fourth Presbyterian Church, photograph by Richard Koch, c. 1923-1933, The Historic New Orleans Collection.1985.120.175.
Emilie Jules Perrault, photograph by Florestine Perrault Collins, early 1920s, courtesy of Dr. Arthé A. Anthony.
Arthur J. Perrault, photograph by Florestine Perrault Collins, mid-1920s, courtesy of Dr. Arthé A. Anthony.
Advertisement for Bertrand’s, New Orleans Herald, September 19, 1925.
Lionel Barthelemy Jr., photograph by Florestine Perrault Collins, 1937, courtesy of Dr. Arthé A. Anthony.
Little Theodore in Soldier Suit in graduation play, June 9, 1940, age 5 1/2 years, photograph by Florestine Perrault Collins, 1940, 4 ½ x 3 1/16 in, The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2001.79.5.
Joseph Sordelet Jr., photograph by Florestine Perrault Collins, 1923, courtesy of Dr. Arthé A. Anthony.