Issue #223

As most of you know, the United States witnessed some harrowing scenes of racial unrest and injustice last week. They troubled everyone with a mind or a heart.

By what now seems a grateful coincidence, Aperture magazine recently published a special edition, #223, titled Vision & Justice, guest-edited by Sarah Lewis, an Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and African and African American Studies at Harvard University and currently a Du Bois Fellow at Harvard. Aperture issue #223 examines the role of photography in the African-American experience.

"In 1926, my grandfather was expelled in the eleventh grade in New York City for asking where African Americans were in the history books. He refused to accept what the teacher told him, that African Americans had done nothing to merit inclusion. He was expelled for his so-called impertinence. His pride was so wounded that he never went back to high school. Instead, he went on to become a jazz musician and a painter, inserting images of African Americans in scenes where he thought they should—and knew they did—exist. The endeavor to affirm the dignity of human life cannot be waged without pictures, without representational justice. This, he knew.

"American citizenship has long been a project of vision and justice."

So begins Lewis's introduction.

The issue—it's really a book in all but name—features a wide range of photographers and artists who use photography, accompanied by short essays by an equally wide-ranging sampling of writers. Not all are black, but almost all the photographs are of black people and black life in America, currently and in history. To name a few names, the photographers include "such luminaries as Lyle Ashton Harris, Annie Leibovitz, Sally Mann, Jamel Shabazz, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, and Deborah Willis, as well as the brilliant voices of an emerging generation—Devin Allen, Awol Erizku, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Deana Lawson, and Hank Willis Thomas, among many others. These portfolios are complemented by essays from some of the most influential voices in American culture including contributions by celebrated writers, historians, and artists such as Vince Aletti, Teju Cole, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Margo Jefferson, Wynton Marsalis, and Claudia Rankine."

There are two covers to choose from, one in color, one in black-and-white. I chose the one above, a heretofore little-known photograph of Martin Luther King with his father and his son.

It's a sampler, but a vital and exuberant one, built by many hands. Prof. Lewis is attracting widespread praise for her brilliant effort. You can get it directly from Aperture or through Amazon (here's Amazon UK), but either way it's going to take a while to arrive—it's attracting demand from far outside the boundaries of those interested in photography and is currently sold out, being reprinted as we speak. If it were me I'd get in line at Amazon. I've been dipping into this every evening since it came, and it has made me feel better—very highly recommended, but especially right now.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Comments

[David Cope]

Purchased via the Amazon UK link in your post. Long lead time for sure, but I'm patient and looking forward to getting this issue. Thanks for heads up on this.

[Rusty]

Any relation to Gordon?

[No. --Mike]

[Steve G]

Mike:

Thanks for the recommendation - I just ordered. I was in Copenhagen when the Dallas tragedy news hit and write this from Karlskrona in Sweden. Distance does not make it better. I'm scared for the country I deeply love. This looks to be a document of hope.

Steve

[Marcus]

A podcast interview with the editor, Sarah Lewis. https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-244-sarah-lewis-malin-wilson-powell/

[GRJ]

Probably the best issue of Aperture since they switched to the "topical" approach a couple years ago. Makes the "Inez & Vinoodh" issue seem like a folly.

[Eric Perlberg]

FWIW Tyler Green has interviewed Sarah Lewis about this Aperture publication on this weeks Modern Art Notes podcast. https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-244-sarah-lewis-malin-wilson-powell/

[s.wolters]

Thanks Mike for this tip. Strange how you always come up with subjects I am busy with. After getting Hold Still by Sally Mann, Deep South by Paul Theroux (photos' by Steve What's-his-name) and Segregation Story by Gordon Parks the (Southern) African American history has become one of my main interests at the moment.
After six years I gave up my Aperture subscription last year. Could not grab anymore what they were trying to communicate. Looking at this issue they seem to be on the right track again. Unfortunately I did not find the back and white version here in Europe.

[Dale]

Mike,

Speaking of injustice, I wonder if there is a book out there commemorating police officers who have been killed in the line of duty? I recently read that the number of police shot and killed in the US is up by 44% over last year. That includes the outright assassinations that are now in vogue. There's some injustice...

Dale

[I agree. After the events in Dallas I thought of the TOP reader (and friend) who was chief of two police departments in his career. Police are always in jeopardy as they go about their daily work. They deserve to be in our thoughts for sure. --Mike]

[Geoffrey Heard]

And Gordon Parks? What about Gordon Parks? e.g. http://time.com/4200148/gordon-parks-photographs-black-humanity/ -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks

I am white but actually learned my photography in a black country, Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific. By great good fortune, I came across a little book he wrote (it ws "Flash Photography" 1947, I think) which included the advice to turn on its head the accepted notion of modeling with shadow in portraiture to modeling with light when photographing dark skinned people -- modeling with shadow works only with light skinned people. I am back living and working in paradise again, but I have never stopped asking the question: "What do you mean by 'Great skin tone rendering'?" which has racism built into it (they mean white skin, of course, but never admit it).

But Gordon Parks not mentioned among the luminaries? Good grief -- how luminous do you have to get?

Cheers, Geoff