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.”

PBR-018

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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


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