Overview

In Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare , Leigh Raiford argues that over the past one hundred years activists in the black freedom struggle have used photographic imagery both to gain political recognition and to develop a different visual vocabulary about black lives. Raiford analyzes why activists chose photography over other media, explores the doubts some individuals had about the strategies, and shows how photography became an increasingly effective, if complex, tool in representing black political interests. Offering readings of the use of photography in the antilynching movement, the civil rights movement, and the black power movement, Raiford focuses on key transformations in technology, society, and politics to understand the evolution of photography's deployment in capturing white oppression, black resistance, and African American life. By putting photography at the center of the long African American freedom struggle, Raiford also explores how the recirculation of these indelible images in political campaigns and art exhibits both adds to and complicates our memory of the events. |Over the past one hundred years, Raiford argues, activists in the black freedom struggle have used photographic imagery both to gain political recognition and to develop a different visual vocabulary about black lives. Offering readings of the use of photography in the antilynching movement, the civil rights movement, and the black power movement, Raiford focuses on key transformations in technology, society, and politics to understand the evolution of photography's deployment in capturing white oppression, black resistance, and African American life.

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9781469609782

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This is a sophisticated study, well above the useful level for public libraries....It is a compelling work unlike anything else presently offered in the field's scholarship.--<i>Tennessee Libraries</i>

Scholars and students of mass media and of black portraiture in popular culture would be well advised to mine this outstanding book's insights and techniques before proceeding with their own projects. Raiford's work is at the cutting edge of black cultural studies writing. --William L. Van Deburg, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This is a sophisticated study, well above the useful level for public libraries....It is a compelling work unlike anything else presently offered in the field's scholarship.--Tennessee Libraries

Raiford's examination of photography's participation during three critical moments in African American history is an exemplary and engaging work that advances the conversation of African Americans and the making of America. . . . [Her] work adds a welcomed voice and perspective to the visual dialogue between past and present. - American Studies Journal

Raiford's examination of photography's participation during three critical moments in African American history is an exemplary and engaging work that advances the conversation of African Americans and the making of America. . . . [Her] work adds a welcomed voice and perspective to the visual dialogue between past and present. <br>- American Studies Journal

Author Information

Leigh Raiford is assistant professor of African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

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