Inscribed by One of the Featured Photographers

The Black Photographers Annual Volume 2 [Wrappers Issue]

Crawford, Joe (editor)

Notes: The second of four volumes seeking to define "a new Blackness, real and strong as our history, pushing consciousness toward a new place" through photography (quoted from the first volume). At the time Joe Crawford started this series, African American photographers had been almost completely left out of the photographic literature. See the essay by Carla Williams in Aperture 223 for a short study of the place of these "annuals" (which were issued several years apart) in photobook history.

This volume reproduces—with well-printed halftones—the images of 51 black photographers from the US, England, and Canada. Contributors include Roy DeCarava, James Van DerZee, Ming Smith, St. Clair Bourne, and Chuck Stewart. Three photographers, P. H. Polk, Jimmie Manns, and Ted Gray, are given portfolios of several images, with a biographical introduction. Polk operated a studio in Tuskegee, Alabama, beginning in the early 1930s. This portfolio publishes some of his compelling personal work.

102, [6] pages. 8-3/4 by 10 inches.

Edition + Condition: First edition, wrappers (paperback) issue, issued simultaneously with a hardcover version. A very good copy with a spot of glue residue (from an old sticker) on the front cover. This copy is inscribed on the title page, "Bill, your friend P. H. Polk." Polk inscribed the book again on page 71, alongside a photograph of him holding a large fish. He adds, "Hey! Bill. Come down and I show you how it's done. P. H. Polk."

These annuals are exceptionally scarce signed by any photographer. Bill was likely W. D. Myles, whose name is stamped on the inside back cover.

Publication: Brooklyn: Black Photographers Annual, 1974.

Item No: #363194

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