First published 2018
Lorna Simpson takes advertising photographs from vintage Ebony and Jet magazines and reimagines them as visual art. She adorns the models with surreal hairstyles created from vibrant ink washes, geological formations lifted from old textbooks, and other surprising materials. Each collage explores how hair functions as a complex visual language for Black women and men. Simpson's techniques create beautiful and unexpected juxtapositions that challenge how we see beauty and identity. The book presents 160 of these artworks alongside Simpson's own statement about her process and an introduction by Elizabeth Alexander, who describes Black women's hair as containing entire galaxies and solar systems. This collection reveals how Simpson uses found imagery to create new conversations about representation, beauty, and the power of transformation through art.
Genres: art, african-american, photography, art-history
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, transformation
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
204 pages · Kindle Edition · Chronicle Books LLC