BLACK BOOK

This book features portraits of Black men photographed between 1977 and 1986, including 91 black-and-white plates. The introduction was written by poet Ntozake Shange, and includes the striking line: “Look at me pretty niggah.” The subjects are beautiful, refined, and powerfully present. Yet in some of their expressions, there seems to be something beyond confidence — a trace of uncertainty, hesitation, or vulnerability. In the United States of the 1970s and 1980s, although racial discrimination had been rejected under the law, deep inequalities and prejudices still remained within society. These portraits quietly capture Black men living through that time. As a Japanese person living in Japan, it is not easy to imagine racial discrimination based on skin color as part of my own reality. Still, looking through this photobook makes me think deeply about what it means to be exposed to prejudice from birth, and what it means to continue preserving one’s dignity within such circumstances. 95 pages / 29.5 × 29.5 cm / Paperback