What Matters Most: Photographs of Black Life

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Author: Lee, ZunThis volume highlights photographs of African American family life between the 1970s and the early 2000s – pictures that were lost by their original owners and then found by the artist Zun Lee on a street in Detroit in 2012, marking the beginning of the Fade Resistance collection of more than 4,000 Polaroids. These vivid images chronicle milestones such as weddings, birthdays and graduations, as well as quiet daily moments, offering contemporary views long ignored by mainstream culture. Lee describes the collection as an important record of Black visual self-representation and a means to 'reflect the way Black people saw themselves on their terms – without the intention of being seen, or judged, by others'. To Lee, these powerful photographs are an expression of 'Black life mattering'. Together, these works highlight the role snapshots have played in Black life, as tools to challenge stereotypical portrayals and as a means to memorialise family, culture and heritage. Topics such as self-representation, visual history and the social power of photographs are addressed in critical texts by Sophie Hackett, Stefano Harney, Zun Lee and Fred Moten, and an original contribution by celebrated poet Dawn Lundy Martin.ISBN 9781942884941. DelMonico Books/Art Gallery of Ontario. hb. 224 pages. 175 colour ills. 25 x 18 cm.available Show more