“The photographs in Black: A Celebration redefine the black cultural image in America.” --Cheryl Finley, Ph.D.

Photography offers a unique method for capturing the life and soul of a community while it creates a record we can use to understand who we are now and to illustrate the story of who we were. Black: A Celebration looks at the way in which culture is constructed through photographs. Photographing friends, people and places, and family members and their possessions is a transformative act that can instill a sense of joy and dignity in the subject, photographer, and viewer. Black: A Celebration shows us that, since the beginning of photography, individual portraits, family photographs, and images of community events have embodied that special connection. Now in a small-trim-sized chunky edition.

Praise

“Family, History, Memory whispers a central theme that ultimately transcends the black experience: All families are a part of history that informs memory, and thus should be captured on film.”
—Baltimore City Paper, March 2005

“Black: A Celebration of a Culture is an exhilarating collection of black & white photographs in this handsome oversize volume . . . The book is aptly named, as it does succeed in vividly portraying and celebrating Black culture.”
—Book News, November 2005

About the Author

Deborah Willis is a photographer and Professor of Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She is a MacArthur Fellow, and her most recent publications include Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, The Black Female Body: A Photographic History (co-author Carla Williams), and Family History Memory.