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Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present ( 2002 )

“Reflections in Black, the first comprehensive history of black photographers, is a groundbreaking pictorial collection of African American life. Featuring the work of undisputed masters such as James VanDerZee, Gordon Parks, and Carrie Mae Weems among dozens of others, this book is a refutation of the gross caricature of black life that many mainstream photographers have manifested by continually emphasizing poverty over family, despair over hope. 

Nearly 600 images offer rich, moving glimpses of everyday black life, from slavery to the Great Migration to contemporary suburban life, including rare antebellum daguerrotypes, photojournalism of the civil rights era, and multimedia portraits of middle-class families. 

A work so significant that it has the power to reconfigure our conception of American history itself, Reflections in Black demands to be included in every American family’s library as an essential part of our heritage. A Los Angeles Times and Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2000, and a Good Morning, America best gift book of 2000. 600 duotone photographs, 32 pages of color.”

by Deborah Willis

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Photographer and curator Deborah Willis has essentially spent her career examining the visual representation of African Americans. After being awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2000 for her “investigation and recovery of the legacy of African-American photography,” she published “Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present.” The 2002 book was the inspiration for the documentary “Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People,” which is screening at the Film Forum in New York through Sept. 16. Willis, chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, is a co-producer of the film.

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