Roberta Flack: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A black and white photographic portrait of singer Roberta Flack. The portrait is a close up of Flack's face, depicting her from the shoulders up. Flack is angled in the frame, with her chin tilted down and her eyes closed. Her large Afro hairstyle extends beyond the top and right of the image. She wears a dark colored garment with small, light colored, metallic designs embroidered on the shoulders and an open neckline. On the back of the print is the title, date, photographer's signature, and stamp.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1971
• Photograph by: Anthony Barboza, American, born 1944
• Subject of: Roberta Flack, American, 1937 - 2025
• Type: gelatin silver prints
• Type: portraits
• Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
• Dimensions: H x W (sheet): 14 × 11 in. (35.5 × 28 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (image): 13 1/16 × 10 3/4 in. (33.1 × 27.3 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2016.99.32
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Anthony Barboza Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.