WASHINGTON, DC.- Photography has served a crucial role in providing a visual record of African American history. “Double Exposure” is a major multivolume series based on the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s photography collection. The photography showcases a striking visual account of key historical events, cultural touchstones and private and communal moments to illuminate African American life.

The fourth and newest book in the series, Picturing Children, features a diverse selection of photographs: spontaneous records of intimate family moments, posed portraits and young people engaged in playtime, communal activities and public protest. Photographers include Henry Clay Anderson, Nina Leen, Jamel Shabazz, Wayne F. Miller, Joe Schwartz, Jamel Shabazz and Milton Williams. The book includes short reflections on individual photographs, which explore how the images speak not only to past experiences of African American youth, but also to the evolving concepts of childhood, youth engagement in American society and the future.

“In this collection of more than 50 images of children, we catch glimpses of African American life, past and present that prompt us to consider our responsibilities to youth not only as a moral obligation, but as an essential venture in shaping our future,” said Lonnie Bunch, director of NMAAHC.

The first volume in the “Double Exposure” series, Through the African American Lens, is an introduction to the collection, revealing the ways in which African Americans have engaged in activism, sustained communities and created culture to live life with dignity. Civil Rights and the Promise of Equality, the second volume, commemorates the ongoing fight to fulfil the promise of freedom and equality for all American citizens. Volume three, African American Women, highlights NMAAHC’s rich collection of photographs of African American women, presenting unknown women alongside icons such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Lena Horne and Grace Jones.

The “Double Exposure” series will continue with volume five, March Toward Freedom, featuring images of the African American military experiences to be published in 2017. Visit www.nmaahc.si.edu for updates. Volumes 1–4 are now available for sale at www.smithsonianstore.com and in the stores at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Castle, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art and in the Smithsonian store at Union Station.