Ming Smith's poetic and experimental images are icons of twentieth-century African American life. One of the greatest artist-photographers working today, Smith moved to New York in the 1970s and began to make images charged with startling beauty and spiritual energy. This long-awaited monograph brings together four decades of Smith's work, celebrating her trademark lyricism, distinctively blurred silhouettes, dynamic street scenes, and deep devotion to theater, music, poetry, and dance--from the "Pittsburgh Cycle" plays of August Wilson to the Afrofuturism of Sun Ra. With never-before-seen images, and a range of illuminating essays and interviews, this tribute to Smith's singular vision promises to be an enduring contribution to the history of American photography.
Copublished by Aperture and Documentary Arts
Author: Ming Smith
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Aperture Direct
Published: 11/10/2020
Pages: 236
Weight: 3.4lbs
Size: 11.75h x 9.75w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781683952329
About the AuthorSmith, Ming: - "
Ming Smith was born in Detroit and raised in Columbus, Ohio. A self-taught artist and former model, in the 1970s, she published her early work in
The Black Photographers Annual. Smith's work has been collected by and presented in major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York; Brooklyn Museum; National Museum of African American History and Culture, and National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; and Serpentine Galleries, and Tate Modern, London. Beginning in 2017, her work was included in the celebrated traveling exhibitions
We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965 - 85 and
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, as well as in Arthur Jafa's exhibition
A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions, which traveled from London to Berlin, Prague, Stockholm, and Porto, Portugal. In 2019, Smith's solo exhibition with Jenkins Johnson Gallery was awarded the Frieze Stand Prize at Frieze New York. Smith lives and works in New York."
Iduma, Emmanuel: -
Emmanuel Iduma is a writer based in Lagos, Nigeria, and New York. A contributor to publications, including
Aperture, the
New York Review of Books,
BOMB, and
British Journal of Photography, he is the author of
The Sound of Things to Come (2016) and
A Stranger's Pose (2018). He was associate curator for the inaugural Nigerian Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale.
Talbert, Janet Hill: -
Janet Hill Talbert is a jewelry designer and former book editor living in New York. A publishing industry veteran who spent more than two decades as an editor, Talbert served as vice president at Doubleday and founded the African American book imprint Harlem Moon.
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