First published 2021
From colonial-era studio portraits to vibrant contemporary fashion, "African Lookbook" unveils the cosmopolitan elegance and steadfast dignity of African women across centuries. Curator and writer Catherine E. McKinley draws on her unparalleled photo collection to reveal how these subjects reclaimed the tools of colonial oppression, asserting their selfhood and modernity through their bold, visionary style. As McKinley shows, while African studios captured the grandeur of their subjects, European photographers often reduced African women to sexualized nudes, exposing a grave power imbalance. This unprecedented visual history celebrates the agency and artistry that African women have always wielded.
Genres: art, 20th-century, african-literature, 21st-century, art-history, africa, fashion, fashion-design
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: agency-and-artistry, reclaimed-identity, visual-history
Setting: Africa, Europe
Period: Colonial Era, 20th Century, 21st Century
240 pages · Hardcover · Bloomsbury Publishing