Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography

Deborah Willis (Edited by)

ISBN 10: 1565841077 / ISBN 13: 9781565841079

Published by The New Press, New York, 1994

About this Item

Q5- A first edition (complete numberline) hardcover book SIGNED and inscribed by Deborah Willis to previous owner on the title page in very good condition in very good dust jacket. Dust jacket has wrinkling and crease on the edges and corners, scattered light rubbing and scratches, tanning and light shelf wear. Book has some bumped corners, foxing on the page edges, light discoloration and shelf wear. 9.25"x6.25", 209 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. As each year ushers in the publication of more books featuring African Americans and as the number of images of African Americans in magazines, in movies, and on TV continues to increase, Picturing Us is a welcome and long-overdue examination of how these images should be interpreted. Deborah Willis, the country's foremost expert on African Americans photography, asked seventeen writers, critics, and film makers to select a photograph of personal or historical significance and to "read" it for insights into the black experience. while some of the contributors write about family portraits - for instance, bell books and E. Ethelbert Miller write about their fathers 0 others have selected photographs of a more public and political nature: Jacquie Jones zooms in on lynchings while Robert Hill analyzes a famous picture of Marcus Garvey in a procession. The photographs and essays in this collection take the reader from the "great black migration" to the Harlem Renaissance, from musings about black female subjectivity in art to the objectification of the black male in the white American psyche. Even the analyses of family portraits convey a broad sense of African American history. Thus a picture in which family members are arranged lightest to darkest represents more than happenstance: reminding us that the black community has been divided by gradations of color since slavery, the snapshot becomes a visual acknowledgement of the unspoken rift. Riveting and timely, Picturing Us is a book no one concerned with race, representation, or photography can afford to miss. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # 2212ec1360

Bibliographic Details

Title: Picturing Us: African American Identity in ...

Publisher: The New Press, New York

Publication Date: 1994

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Signed: Signed by Author

Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

A study of African American identity is the creation of an expert on African-American photography who asked writers, critics, and filmmakers to select a photograph of personal or historical significance and "read" it for insights into the black experience.

Product Description:

Hardcover book - "Picturing Us". The New Press, ISBN: 1-56584-107-7.