Frank Floyd Hightower Photograph Collection
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Selected photographs from the collection are available online. Subjects range from the Kuntu Repertory Theater, Black Horizon Theater, August Wilson’s funeral, to Pittsburgh scenes, events, and neighborhoods, including Homewood and the Hill District. View the related collection by Frank Floyd Hightower's father here: Frank Russell Hightower Photograph Collection.
What's in the entire collection?
Frank Floyd Hightower is a Pittsburgh-born professional photographer, playwright, and artist. The Frank Floyd Hightower Photograph Collection contains his work from the 1960s through the present. Work within the collection documents Black Theater in Pittsburgh, including the work of August Wilson, Rob Penny, Bob Johnson, and Hightower himself. Community activities like Black arts festivals and meetings held by community organizations like the Manchester Citizen's Corporation are also documented. The collection also features Hightower's work as a professional portrait and wedding photographer, and subjects of personal or aesthetic interest to him.
About Frank Floyd Hightower.
Frank Floyd Hightower is a Pittsburgh-born professional photographer, playwright, and artist. His early experiences with photography involved working in his father's darkroom and as the photographer for his high school's yearbook, the Oliver High School Omicron. In 1972, Hightower graduated from the Antonelli School of Photography in Philadelphia. His photographs have been shown in juried exhibitions at The Sewickley Sweetwater Museum, the National Urban League Convention, the Senator John Heinz History Museum, the Frick Fine Arts Museum, the University of Pittsburgh's McCarl Center, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Society of Artists, and the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center. Hightower's interest in theater began in the late 1960s through his work with the Black Horizons Theater. He cites his peers Rob Penny, August Wilson, and Maisha Baton as influences on his play writing. In 1986, he began to attend the Kuntu Writer's Workshop at the University of Pittsburgh, and he has written plays such as "Lifting," "The House that Carol Built," and "Ruby the Salt of the Earth." After retiring from his role as an Administrative Assistant at the Community College of Allegheny County, Hightower pursued his artistic interests in photography, stained glass, and play writing full time. In his work with stained glass, Hightower uses photography and computerization to create works that feature designs and symbols related to African American life. In 2010, he received the Keeper of the Flame award presented by the Legacy Arts Project in Pittsburgh for his photography and writings.