Forthcoming Photo Books by African American & Black African Photographers
Every year as I browse newly published photography books, I can’t help but notice an immense shortage in the number of titles being published by or featuring the works of photographers of color. “Why?” I wonder and yet no reason I can imagine seems acceptable. Consider this Amazon list of 2017 photography books by individual photographers, only 7 of the 307 books (just 2.3%) are by Black photographers of African origin or descent despite the hundreds if not thousands of well-known, working photo-based artists out there.
There’s still no lack of photo books about the “tribes of the world”, made by photographers with an insatiable need to scratch their itch to photograph what they’ve identified as “vanishing” cultures. The artistic value of books like these is often questionable as they are filled with images that cross the line from art photography to blatant cultural appropriation.
What makes a B&W photograph of an indigenous artist at work in a photo book that will sell many copies at $50 a piece any less offensive or disrespectful than the mass-produced goods that formed the basis for the Navajo’s trademark dilution claims against Urban Outfitters and its subsidiaries?
So what can be done to diversify the photobook medium? Here are a few thoughts to inspire a conversation if not action:
- I urge the major and independent photo book publishers of the world to notice the work of photographers of color and dare to publish their work in an effort to close this racial and cultural disparity.
- I call out to photographers of color who have published photo books to regularly share their own knowledge of the (self) publishing process with others like them.
- We must form a community of photobook makers (that can pool financial resources and other design/production support) to help the non-published reach their publishing goals.
- Beyond the typical survey or monograph, the publishing industry at large must commit to diversifying the photobook medium by releasing books every year featuring unique bodies of work by individual photographers of color.
- At the very least, curators can help fill the gap by budgeting for and publishing catalogs of the solo exhibitions featuring photographers of color that they organize.
- Organizers of art book fairs should recognize this underserved group and take measures to diversify the titles displayed at their events.
Lastly, to get back to the point as specified by the title of this post. The following is a list of those 7 photo books to be released in 2017 that I mentioned earlier and including Adger Cowan’s book which was just published this January:
Sights in the City: New York Street Photographs by Jamel Shabazz (2017)
Sights in the City: New York Street Photographs by Jamel Shabazz
Publisher: Damiani (March 28, 2017)
Product Information Excerpt:
Consisting of 120 color and black-and-white photographs taken between 1985 and the 2000s, most of which have never been published, Sights in the City is the testament of Shabazz’s visual journey.
Leslie Hewitt (2017)
Leslie Hewitt
Publisher: OSMOS BOOKS (June 27, 2017)
Product Information Excerpt:
That cinematic rumination on historicity and the relationship of the archive to memory, minimalism, lived experience and time, sets an exemplary precedent for this first monograph surveying Hewitt’s oeuvre.
Gordon Parks: Collected Works: Study Edition (2017)
Gordon Parks: Collected Works
Publisher: Steidl/The Gordon Parks Foundation (April 25, 2017)
Product Information Excerpt:
This five-volume collection surveys five decades of Gordon Parks’ (1912–2006) photography. It is the most extensive publication to document his legendary career.
Koto Bolofo: Printing (2017)
Koto Bolofo: Printing
Publisher: Steidl (May 23, 2017)
Product Information Excerpt:
Innovative fashion photographer Koto Bolofo (born 1959) is well known for his portraits and fashion shoots, and published in such prestigious periodicals as Vogue, Esquire and i-D. In this volume, his images lead readers through the corridors and stairways of the Steidl printing center, documenting the magical formation of some of the most beautiful visual books ever made.
Koto Bolofo: Paper Making (2017)
Koto Bolofo: Paper Making
Publisher: Steidl (May 23, 2017)
Product Information Excerpt:
In Paper Making, Koto Bolofo graphically captures Hahnemühle’s artisanal processes and antique machinery alongside today’s most advanced technologies, uncovering the attention to detail, vision and pride that have sustained the company’s unmatched reputation for centuries.
Santu Mofokeng: Stories 5-7: Soweto-Dukathole-Johannesburg (2017)
Santu Mofokeng: Stories 5-7: Soweto-Dukathole-Johannesburg
Publisher: Steidl (May 23, 2017)
Product Information Excerpt:
This three-volume publication, which continues a groundbreaking reappraisal of the photographer’s archive, presents aspects of life in Soweto, where Mofokeng grew up; Dukathole, a township in the East Rand of Gauteng Province; and Johannesburg, the city in which he worked.
Fragile Legacies: The Photographs of Solomon Osagie Alonge (2017)
Fragile Legacies: The Photographs of Solomon Osagie Alonge
Publisher: GILES (March 3, 2017)
Product Information Excerpt:
Chief Solomon Osagie Alonge (1911–1994) was one of Nigeria’s premier photographers and the first official photographer to the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Benin.
Personal Vision: Adger Cowans (2017)
Personal Vision: Adger Cowans
Publisher: Glitterati (January 27, 2017)
Product Information Excerpt:
Master American photographer Adger Cowan’s predominantly black-and-white photography is collected in Personal Vision: Photographs, his monograph of original images taken over the past forty years.
Qiana Mestrich is a photographer, writer, digital marketer and mother from Brooklyn, NY. She is the founder of Dodge & Burn: Decolonizing Photography History, a blog that seeks to establish a more inclusive history of photography, highlighting contributions to the medium by and about people of underrepresented cultures. Read her other guest posts on the Baxter St blog: Photography and the Black Panther Party, The Black Female Self in Landscape and In Memoriam: John Berger and Uses of Photography Quotes.
