The Black Index

$35.00

ISBN 978-3-7774-3596-1
2021, English, 8 x 10 in, 128 pages, color, hardcover

Edited by Bridget R. Cooks and Sarah Watson
Authors: Bridget R. Cooks, CalvinJohn Smiley, Re'al Christian, Ella Turenne

The artists featured in The Black IndexDennis Delgado, Alicia Henry, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Titus Kaphar, Whitfield Lovell, and Lava Thomas—build upon the tradition of Black self-representation as an antidote to colonialist images. Their translations of photography challenge the medium’s long-assumed qualities of objectivity, legibility and identification.

Using drawing, sculpture, and digital technology to transform the recorded image, these artists question our reliance on photography as a privileged source for documentary objectivity and historical understanding. The works featured here offer an alternative practice—a Black index. In the hands of these six artists, the index still serves as a finding aid for information about Black subjects, but it also challenges viewers’ desire for classification and, instead, redirects them toward alternative information.