Issue #018 - Fall 2020
The PhotoBook Review Issue 018
Guest Editor Deborah Willis leads a survey of photobooks by Black artists, creating the scaffolding for future research and study. In her own studies and published works, Willis has laid the groundwork for the history of Black photographers as they established “a visual language of ‘testifying’ about their individual and collective experiences.”
Featured Content
Issue Details
Guest Editor Deborah Willis leads a survey of photobooks by Black artists, creating the scaffolding for future research and study. In her own studies and published works, Willis has laid the groundwork for the history of Black photographers as they established “a visual language of ‘testifying’ about their individual and collective experiences.” This issue will extend that exploration to the way those testimonial and expressive works have appeared as photobooks or other printed publications. Starting with Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes’s The Sweet Flypaper of Life, published in 1955, and canvassing works by contemporary photographers and publishers, this issue offers an annotated bibliography of photobooks by African American artists and, more broadly, artists of the African Diaspora.
Table Of Contents
Features and Columns
Editor’s Note
Brendan Embser in conversation with Guest Editor Dr. Deborah Willis
Designer Spotlight
Camille Crain Drummond in conversation with Nontsikelelo Mutiti
Publisher Profile
Lesley A. Martin in conversation with Kris Graves, +KGP and Monolith Editions
Africa in the PhotoBook
Azu Nwagbogu in conversation with Ben Krewinkel
Notes for Future Study: PhotoBooks by Black Artists
Introduction by Dr. Deborah Willis
Featuring contributions by Nicole Acheampong, Ian Andrew Askew, Sasha Bonét, Milisuthando Bongela, Isolde Brielmaier, Kimberly Juanita Brown, Antawan I. Byrd, Bridget R. Cooks, Sean Corcoran,
Julie Crooks, Brendan Embser, Bill Gaskins, M. Neelika Jayawardane, Jovonna Jones, Roshini Kempadoo, John Edwin Mason, Evan Moffitt, Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Sean O’Toole, Brian Wallis, and Denise Wolff
Centerfold
Rush Jackson / Onyx Self-Imaging
The Black Image Corporation
Antwaun Sargent in conversation with Theaster Gates
The 2020 Paris Photo– Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards Shortlist
With Joshua Chuang, Susan Meiselas, Sarah Meister, and Oluremi C. Onabanjo
Reviews
Working Together
Cheryl Finley on Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop
I Can Make You Feel Good
Jessica Bell Brown on Tyler Mitchell
You Next: Reflections in Black Barber Shops
Jeffrey Henson Scales on Antonio M. Johnson
Heaven Is a Prison
Jesse Dorris on Mark McKnight
A Small Guide to Homeownership
Mariela Sancari on Alejandro Cartagena
The Last Cruze
S*an D. Henry-Smith on LaToya Ruby Frazier
Self-Portraits
Amanda Maddox on Yurie Nagashima
Autoportrait
Jennifer Blessing on Samuel Fosso
Back Issues
The PhotoBook Review is now part of Aperture magazine
The PhotoBook Review is now published within the pages of every issue of Aperture magazine. Subscribe to Aperture to receive thoughtful book reviews, in-depth opinion pieces, artists’ selections, publisher spotlights, and interviews with photographers, book collectors, designers, and more.
The PhotoBook Review Issue 020
Clément Chéroux, Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, helms issue 020 of The PhotoBook Review on the occasion of the publication’s tenth anniversary.
The PhotoBook Review Issue 019
In this issue, The PhotoBook Review celebrates the fine art of talking about books and what goes into their making. Offset artist Dayanita Singh has stated, “A book is a conversation with a stranger in the future.” This issue breaks the ice with a series of book makers and book aficionados in dialogue with one...
The PhotoBook Review Issue 017
Guest edited by Carmen Winant, whose creative practice involves “creation and transformation, an Ouroborus in which printed material is both created and destroyed.” Her photobooks, such as Body Index (2020), and My Birth (2018), have been informed by her deeply held commitment to feminism.
The PhotoBook Review Issue 016
Guest edited by Federica Chiocchetti, a writer, curator, editor, and lecturer specializing in photography, fictions, and words. Through her on- and offline platform The Photocaptionist, she collaborates with institutions such as The Photographers’ Gallery, Fotomuseum Winterthur, and Foam.
The PhotoBook Review Issue 015
Guest edited by David Campany, writer, curator, photographer, and educator, one of the most prolific critics on modern and contemporary photography in the field today. In early 2020, he was appointed the managing director of programs at the International Center of Photography, New York.
The PhotoBook Review Issue 014
Guest edited by Deirdre Donohue, who brings her bibliographic and bibliophilic knowledge to this issue. Donohue is assistant director of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs at the New York Public Library. Formerly, she was the Stephanie Shuman Director of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections at the International Center...
The PhotoBook Review Issue 013
Issue 013 was assembled by Lesley A. Martin, publisher of The PhotoBook Review and creative director at Aperture Foundation.
The PhotoBook Review Issue 012
Guest edited by Daria Tuminas, an independent scholar, writer, and curator specializing in the contemporary photobook. She currently works with Fotodok in the Netherlands, and is the former head of the Unseen Book Market and Unseen Dummy Awards.
The PhotoBook Review Issue 011
Guest edited by Denise Wolff, senior editor at Aperture. She has spearheaded the commission of Aperture’s education-oriented titles, such as The Photographer’s Playbook (2014) and The Photography Workshop Series (2014–ongoing), in addition to children’s books by authors like Joel Meyerowitz, Jason Fulford, and Susan Meiselas.