Originally from Mississippi, Earlie Hudnall served in Vietnam before moving to Houston in 1968 to study at Texas Southern University with the acclaimed artist John Biggers. Despite earlier experiences with photography, Hudnall initially intended to pursue work in drawing, painting, and sculpture. However, a commission to document Houston’s 3rd and 4th Wards for the federal government’s Model Cities Program led him to a decades-long endeavor to record the lives of ordinary African Americans living there. Hudnall’s photographs poignantly depict the families and communities that define the life and character of the neighborhoods.