Overview

Long overlooked in American culture, African American beauty finally get its due in this landmark work As a student in the 1970s, Deborah Willis came to the realization that images of black beauty, female and male, simply did not exist in the larger culture. Determined to redress this imbalance, Willis examined everything from vintage ladies' journals to black newspapers, and started what would become a lifelong quest. With more than two hundred arresting images, many previously unpublished, Posing Beauty recovers a world many never knew existed. Historical subjects such as Billie Holiday and Josephine Baker illuminate the past; Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali take us to the civil rights era; Denzel Washington, Lil' Kim, and Michelle Obama celebrate the present. Featuring the works of more than one hundred photographers, including Carl van Vechten, Eve Arnold, Lee Friedlander, and Carrie Mae Weems, Willis's book not only celebrates the lives of the famous but also captures the barber shop, the bodybuilding contest, and prom night. Posing Beauty challenges our most fundamental assumptions about what it means to be beautiful.

Full Product Details

9780393340594

Table of Contents

Reviews

...beautiful and thought provoking portraits. Black and White Photography ...this amazing collection... International Herald Tribune Full of stunning images...this is an excellent collection of reportage and street photography that traces the highs and lows of black culture in America over the past 120 years. Amateur Photographer ...monumental contribution to contemporary American culture... The New York Times

The book is a treasure, a triumph and a singular achievement that invites fresh and enduring insights with each viewing.--Jennifer Baszile

Author Information

The chair of the Photography Department and a University Professor at New York University, Deborah Willis is a MacArthur, Guggenheim and Fletcher Fellow. She is the author of Reflections in Black (ISBN 978 0 393 32280 4).

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