While honoring the historical necessity of the movementʼs secrecy, Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad invites visitors to a small glimpse of what the long road to freedom may have looked like for 100,000 enslaved Americans in the years before the Civil Warʼs end. Over the course of a decade, photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales researched those brave men and women, their collective steps toward liberation, and the complicated paths that led them there—with the hope that visitors might learn more, ask questions, and open dialogue on the subject, all toward better understanding how we all are connected.
Image Credit: Jeanine Michna-Bales, Look for the Grey Barn Out Back,Station with a Tunnel Leading to Another Conductor’s House, 2013, Digital C-print, 32 inches x 43 inches, courtesy the artist.