Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful

Name: Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful
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SKU: 9781597114431
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Summary

Kwame Brathwaite was a pioneering photographer of the late 1950s and 1960s who celebrated the ethos of "Black Is Beautiful." This monograph offers the first dedicated account of Brathwaite's influential career during the second Harlem Renaissance. Inspired by Marcus Garvey's activism, Brathwaite co-founded the African Jazz Arts Society and Studios and the Grandassa Models, a troupe created to challenge white beauty standards by showcasing black women’s natural beauty. The book features stunning portraits and candid images of Harlem’s artistic community, highlighting a key but under-recognised figure in black cultural history.
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Format: Hardback

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for readers interested in photography, black culture and history, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era, as well as those passionate about challenging conventional beauty standards through art and activism.

Coincides with an exhibition of Brathwaite's work, 2019.

Description

"From Beyoncé to Barack Obama, it's hard to think of a black figure who does not owe their prominence, in some measure, to the ethos of 'Black is Beautiful'" - Ekow Eshun, Financial Times

In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Kwame Brathwaite used his photography to popularise the political slogan Black Is Beautiful. This monograph—the first ever dedicated to Brathwaite's remarkable career—tells the story of a key, but under-recognised, figure of the second Harlem Renaissance.

Inspired by the writings of activist and black nationalist Marcus Garvey, Brathwaite, along with his older brother, Elombe Brath, founded the African Jazz Arts Society and Studios (AJASS) and the Grandassa Models (1962). AJASS was a collective of artists, playwrights, designers, and dancers; Grandassa Models was a modelling troupe for black women, founded to challenge white beauty standards.

From stunning studio portraits of the Grandassa Models to behind-the-scenes images of Harlem's artistic community, including Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, and Miles Davis, this book offers a long-overdue exploration of Brathwaite's life and work.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

"From Beyoncé to Barack Obama, it's hard to think of a black figure who does not owe their prominence, in some measure, to the ethos of 'Black is Beautiful'" — Ekow Eshun, Financial Times. The Guardian highlights Brathwaite's dedication to elevating natural black beauty against industry resistance. Hyperallergic describes the work as an important addition to the revolutionary movement behind the slogan. Morgan Jerkins of Artsy praises Brathwaite’s compassionate portrayal of black women, presenting their beauty as inherent and timeless rather than something to be changed.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781597114431

Publisher: Aperture

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 01 May 2019

Country: United States

Imprint: Aperture

Illustration: 16 Illustrations

Contributors:

Text by Deborah Willis
Photographs by Kwame Brathwaite
Text by Tanisha C. Ford

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Weight: 970g

Pages: 144

Collections

Arts & Culture Non-Fiction

About the Author

Kwame Brathwaite (born in Brooklyn, New York, 1938) is represented by Philip Martin in Los Angeles. Beginning in the early 1960s, Brathwaite photographed stories for black publications such as the New York Amsterdam News , City Sun , and Daily Challenge , helping set the stage for the Black Arts and Black Power movements. By the 1970s, Brathwaite was one of the era's top concert photographers, shaping the images of such public figures as Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, James Brown, and Muhammad Ali. Recent acquirers of Brathwaite's work include the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. Tanisha C. Ford (essay) is associate professor of Africana studies and history at the University of Delaware. She is the author of Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul (2015), which won the 2016 Organization of American Historians' Liberty Legacy Foundation Award for best book on civil rights history. She was featured in Aperture 's Fall 2017 issue, "Elements of Style," among many other publications. Ford is a cofounder of TEXTURES, a pop-up material culture lab, creating and curating content on fashion and the built environment. Deborah Willis (essay) is an artist, writer, and curator, as well as professor and chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She has been a Richard D. Cohen Fellow of African and African American Art History at the Hutchins Center, Harvard University (2014), a Guggenheim Fellow (2005), a Fletcher Fellow (2005), and a MacArthur Fellow (2000). Willis received the NAACP Image Award in 2014 for her coauthored book Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery (2013).