Stanley Burns stood inside the Indiana State Museum, a striking figure with his charcoal pinstripe suit and ponytail. But his eyeglasses were by far the most telling feature of his appearance. Being both Art Deco and antique, they were the perfect fit for a part-time doctor and full-time photography buff.

Dr. Burns is an ophthalmologist in New York City and the owner of one of the largest private photographic collections in the world. He became interested in daguerreotypes and other early photographs in the 1970s, and now has close to 1 million images. Burns also has been the founding donor for photo collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and New York’s Bronx Museum of the Arts, among others.

The collector and connoisseur was in Indianapolis on a recent weekday morning to look over his latest exhibition, “Shadow and Substance: African American Images from The Burns Archive,” a selection of photographs dating back to the early 1800s.

There are sad images, like the one of a little girl picking cotton in the Mississippi Delta in 1930. And horrific sights, like the photo of a chain-whipped slave.

But there are positive images, too, including a proud portrait of Frederick Douglass, or the happy community gathering at a diner in Philadelphia in 1950, or the snapshot of Indianapolis’ own Major Taylor atop a bicycle in 1899.

Whether working in words or pictures or private practice, the goal for Burns is always to educate.

How does a noted ophthalmic surgeon become one of the world’s foremost photo collectors?

I recognized that the photograph supplies information that the written description of the event does not. Like this image, which has been published a few times, of a dead federal soldier. But what about the black boy in the background? This is direct evidence of the utilization of civilian contraband of blacks by the federal troops. Here you have a photograph of it, even if descriptions of the day would leave that out. An original untouched photograph is irrefutable evidence.

You’ve acquired your collection through aggressive buying. Tell me about where you locate these photos.

Remember, I’ve done 40 books, hundreds of exhibitions and dozens and dozens of lectures. The best example is the book I just finished, “Deadly Intent,” and how after the book came out I was able to buy two pictures I’ve been looking for forever. They’re pictures of whippings within the jail system. One picture was taken in Chicago in 1936 of a wife beater being beaten in prison. They would do this in public, with women and men present, as a humiliation. If they had that system today, there wouldn’t be that much wife beating… The pictures were only (acquired) after I wrote the book.

Tell me about the title of the exhibition here, “Shadow and Substance.”

“Shadow and Substance” is the term used by Sojourner Truth, who was a black abolitionist, and it read something like, I sell the shadow, which means the photograph, to support the substance, in other words to do her work.

Why do this exhibition?

I’ve had several African-American exhibits before. But I had an exhibition in 2002, supported by the United States government and the Israeli government, and the point was to show how Americans treated African-Americans, keeping in mind the great Israel-Palestinian conflict. This exhibition was born out of that exhibit, “The Dream Deferred.”

Are you a photographer yourself?

I am. I shoot events and historic personages and documentary material. I’m not a portrait photographer. But I’ve taken photographs at every photographic exhibition I’ve been to, every photographic meeting, which from 1975 to today is its own historic archive.

In the early 1980s, you became a strong voice in the Cultural Diversity movement, particularly with regard to preserving and presenting minority art. How did that begin?

It began with my preservation of African-American photographs, which started with the Bronx Museum of The Arts, in about 1980. The idea was, this is a neglected topic… African-American photographs were devalued just like their lives were in the 19th century. The pictures were thrown out. There were usually two histories of African-American presence in the United States. One was the slave, the beaten hero. The other was the man breaking his chains, fighting oppression… I’ve been doing this almost 30 years now, presenting the African-American not as a beaten person, but as a distinguished person, as someone who had a claim to life, earned it and made a place for himself despite great oppression.

Shadow and Substance: African American Images from The Burns Archive

Where: Indiana State Museum, 650 W. Washington St.

When: Through May 17.

Tickets: Free with museum admission ($7 for adults, $4 for children, free for members).

Info: (317) 232-1637 or www.indianamuseum.org