![]() At a glance it looked like a casual home photo. “I did not take my eyes off the ineffable, loving Fanny present simultaneously in the print and in the chair at a right angle to her husband. ![]() Callahan, Ellison’s friend and literary executor, we read about a first encounter with Ellison’s images. The photographs appeared to be a form of field notes for Ellison’s writing, but seemed also, as happens with many people who pick up a camera, a diaristic form of expression… Ellison consistently sought new ways of understanding and representing Black life and what it means to define oneself as American.” Ralph Ellison: Photographer, published by Steidl / Next, in a chapter by John F. The photographs are remarkable for their display of skill as well as experimentation – ranging from commissioned portraits he made while briefly working as a professional photographer, to documentary photographs of 1940s Harlem printed in his home darkroom, intimate studio portraits of his beloved wife, Fanny, and Polaroid still lifes of objects he collected. “Ellison’s work in the photographic archive proved wide-ranging, experimental, and eye-opening. Junhardt, Jr., Executive Director of the Gordon Parks Foundation, we learn, (Actually, the book begins with an image of Ellison’s stationary – remember he was one of this country’s most important authors – which lists his occupation as Photographer.) In the Introduction, by Peter W. It begins with four essays that unpack Ellison’s history and involvement with photography. Ralph Ellison: Photographer, published by Steidl / Ralph Ellison: Photographer is a scholarly book without jargon or somnambulism. Instead, Ralph Ellison: Photographer is an erudite articulation, in both text and images, of how the artist saw the world. ![]() What I mean is this book is not an aside, a distraction, a quirky look at some famous person’s hobby – not Tom Hanks collection of typewriters or Taylor Swift’s making snow globes – which, in truth, says little about the person’s talent or mind. Ralph Ellison: Photographer is not a curio. There will be those who see the name and already know Ralph Ellison was one of the most important authors in American literary history, author of Invisible Man, winner of the 1953 National Book Award for fiction, inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, friend of Richard Wright and Gordon Parks, author of the essay “What America Would Be Like Without Blacks” and a great many other articles and essays, whose second novel, Juneteenth, wasn’t published until after his death.Ĭo-published by Steidl and The Gordon Parks Foundation and the Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust (2023)Īnd, sadly, because enough time has past between then and now for even brilliant histories to fade, there will be people who see this book and wonder, Ralph who?īoth audiences will find Ralph Ellison: Photographer to be a wonderful, oftentimes thrilling, complex and insightful collection. There are two types of people who will pick up this book.
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