Photo Genius Runs in the Family: Dr. Deborah Willis & Her Son Hank Willis Thomas

How bad a** is this? A Mom and Son photography legacy!

This is the stuff African American families are made of, but you would never see it on TV.

Dr. Deborah Willis is a professor and Chair at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, an accomplished fine art photographer, recipient of a 2000 MacArthur "genius" Fellowship.

Her son, Hank Willis Thomas, has an impressive photography career of his own. Check out the "Branded" and “Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America" featured on his website.

Morphing iconic commerical and historical imagery, Hank Willis Thomas' work is art in action as social commentary on American consumerism and racial politics.

Recap: "Women, Race & Beauty" panel hosted by Glamour Magazine

The CocoaChic Beauty site covered this important dialogue on "women, race & beauty" that took place on November 27, 2007.

The discussion was moderated by journalist and NPR's host of News & Notes, Farai Chideya while the panel was comprised of several accomplished women of color.

Read the entire article and RETHINK BEAUTY!

San Francisco, CA Exhibit

Gallery Route One

"Our Town." Photographs by C.R. Snyder. "Where We Live." Images by members of the Latino Photography Project. Works by Steve Pring. Exhibitions end Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Mon. 11101 Hwy. 1, Point Reyes Station. (415) 663-1347. www.galleryrouteone.org.

Exhibit: Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits

The inaugural exhibition of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) -- traces the history of the United States from the vantage point of people who have suffered discrimination, oppression and injustice.

Even now, after decades of social progress, the images from Resistance still challenge America to live up to its own highest ideals, according to Deborah Willis, curator of the exhibition.

Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits opened October 19 and will be on display until March 2, 2009.

PHOTO: Martin Luther King Jr. stands with his wife, Coretta, and daughter Yolanda in 1956. (© Sandra Weiner/National Portrait Gallery)

Independent Film Challenges Western Beauty Standards

Blonde hair, blue eyes, Barbie doll-like proportions, strutting your stuff in a barely-there swimsuit: none of these will qualify a woman to win the Miss Navajo Nation beauty pageant!

Excerpt from the Associated Press article titled "There she is, Miss Navajo" by Felicia Fonseca:

"On the nation's largest Indian reservation, where tradition reigns, contestants are required to speak their native language, make fry bread and butcher a sheep, the animal that represents life to the Navajos.

"The pageant really gets people's interest because they say, 'Oh my gosh, a pageant where you butcher sheep,'" said Billy Luther, a documentary film maker. "But I think people walk away learning the Navajo way of life and how much the Navajo people respect women."

Luther, whose mother was crowned Miss Navajo in 1966, offers a different take on what it means to be beautiful in his first feature-length documentary, "Miss Navajo," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year is airing on PBS's Independent Lens.

Beauty is very much internal, Luther says. What Navajos perceive as beautiful might not be beautiful to others, he said.

"It's having the knowledge of your culture, it's having respect for your mothers and grandmothers, it's the language, fluency. As we say, that's harmony, that's what we strive for," said Luther, 32, who is Navajo, Laguna and Hopi.

Luther's documentary follows Crystal Frazier, a now-23-year-old Table Mesa resident, on her quest to become Miss Navajo during the 2005 pageant."

Get more info at the film's website - missnavajomovie.com and watch the film airing this month on a PBS channel near you.

PHOTO: Director Billy Luther and Crystal Frazier, Miss Navajo pageant contestant - Copyright © Idris Rheubottom

Exhibit: SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2007, 6-8 PM

Von Lintel Gallery is pleased to present Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Taking a cue from Melvin Van Peebles’ infamous 1971 film of the same name, this exhibition of fourteen African American artists is also a journey that examines the representation of African Americans in popular culture.

Artists are Dawoud Bey, Radcliffe Bailey, Iona Rozeal Brown, Zoë Charlton, Renee Cox, Michael Paul Britto, Barkley Hendricks, Titus Kaphar, Lawrence Lee, Carrie Mae-Weems, Robert Pruitt, Ifétayo Abdus-Salam, Mickalene Thomas, and Hank Willis Thomas.

Curated by Collette Blanchard, the exhibition spans over 35 years and several different mediums including photography, drawings, paintings, video and installation.

VON LINTEL GALLERY
555 WEST 25TH STREET
NEW YORK , NY 10001

For further information or visual material, please contact Collette Blanchard at (212) 242-0599 or e-mail at
gallery@vonlintel. com.

Illuminating & Informative Book Review on Black Masculinity

Semi off topic for this photo-focused blog, I know, but this article ("It's a Man's World: The Politics of Black Masculinity" by Lavelle Porter) is so on-point that it's keeping me awake at 2:37am and beyond.

Porter discusses the following books:
1. Our Living Manhood: Literature, Black Power and Masculine Ideology by Rolland Murray (U. of Pennsylvania Press, 2007, 168 pages)

2. Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire and the Black American Intellectual by Robert F. Reid-Pharr (New York U. Press, 2007, 208 pages)

3. Manning the Race: Reforming Black Men in the Jim Crow Era by Marlon B. Ross (New York University Press, 2004, 498 pages)

The piece is also speckled with historical insights on black manhood from famous Black American men like W.E.B. DuBois, Alain Locke, James Baldwin and some feminine/ist views from the likes of Michele Wallace.

A couple of salient points from the author that struck me:

"...one can see how hip-hop’s defiant posture evolved out of blaxploitation era film by way of the black power movement, and thus we end up with a popular cultural art-form that is almost all style and emptied of much of its political substance. Perhaps my favorite representation of this phenomenon was Public Enemy’s quick-stepping drill team which adopted the look of the Panthers (sunglasses and berets) and the intimidating pose of the Nation’s Fruit of Islam, but with none of the actual self-defense skills and training. They are clearly trained dancers on stage for show."

"...it seems no black achievement is considered legitimate unless it is carried out by heterosexual black men."

Egyptian Photographer: Youssef Nabil

"Youssef Nabil grew up in a Cairo drenched in the golden age cinema of Hollywood on the Nile - a black and white film world in which he nostalgically recalls the glamour, ease, elegance and melodrama.

Nabil’s hand-painted black and white photos evoke the deliciously outmoded feel of photo-novels which accompanied the cinema at the time. Each portrait highlights the extraordinary character of his models which include distinguished artists, actors, singers and friends."

I've always thought that hand-painting B&W photographs was a cute photo "trick" but Nabil's work shows that it's a truly valid artistic technique that he's managed to use as his signature style.

Visit Youssef Nabil's website.

Nabil’s next major exhibition will be at the Artparis Abu Dhabi Art Fair from November 27 - 29, 2007. This fair is the first annual international event dedicated to showcasing the work of modern and contemporary Middle Eastern artists.

Bloomberg.com Article: "Photos of China's Monks, Hong Kong Cafes Show a Vanishing World "

By Julia Tanski

Some good commentary and links to galleries in here... read it.

Invisible No More: Utah Latino Dignity March

Salt Lake City Public Library

Opening Ceremony: Monday, November 19, Noon

On April 9, 2006, more than 43,000 people marched peacefully from the City and County Building to the Utah State Capitol to support a more humanitarian approach to immigration. This bilingual photo-documentary captures the event with photographs and other documents.

Px3's Human Condition Competition Deadline: November 14, 2007

This one-time only competition strives to document and display the wide spectrum of peoples' ways of life around the world; from rich to poor, from third world nations to western society, and from joyful to desolate. The top 25 winning photographs will be exhibited in Los Angeles and New York.

Enter online and get more info at the PX3 website.