Discovering Posing Beauty

I was browsing around one of the best stores in Charlotte last Saturday, Paper Skyscraper, searching for the perfect birthday gift for one of my girlfriends, an African American history buff with a penchant for photography, when I stumbled upon a large book featuring the striking profile of a dark-skinned, bald black woman way up on the very top shelf near the back of the store. From what I could read on the cover from my 5-foot 3-inch vantage point below — Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present — I expected this book to fit the bill of what I was looking for for my friend; I didn’t expect to want to buy it for myself.

Once I got it down off the shelf, I began flipping through what would prove to be one of the most visually stunning publications I had ever seen. Since there was only one book in the store (and after serious contemplation on whether I would actually part with this book at my friend’s party later that night, which I did), the find is now firmly ingrained on my Christmas list.

Compiled by Deborah Willis, chair of the Photography and Imaging Department at the Tisch School of the Arts and a University Professor at New York University, this captivating hardcover is crammed with more than 200 historical and contemporary images of blackness — and challenges the traditional notions of beauty. In fact, Posing Beauty was inspired by a realization she had as a student in the 1970s that images of black beauty did not exist in the mainstream culture.

With photographs of people from Josephine Baker and Muhammad Ali to Lil’ Kim and Malcolm X, Willis’ visual narrative explores the notion of aesthetics through the lens of race, class, politics, pop culture, society, occupation and gender. Also included are images of Ray Charles, James Brown, Ray Charles, Stokely Carmichael, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Rosa Parks, Denzel Washington, and the Obamas. There are also visual representations of everyday people and their lives captured in barbershops, beauty salons, churches, pageants, and simply walking down the street.

This thoughtful and dramatic narrative uncovers the types of images that were once banned from history books, newspapers and magazines and have now come to dominate the media. Each photo tells a story; they explore and redefine the once-idealized and increasingly complex definition of what it means to be beautiful through the use of photography, film, video, fashion, advertising, music and even the Internet.

Besides the images themselves, the true beauty of Posing Beauty is that it is sure to prompt lively discussion — like it did at my friend’s birthday dinner when she unwrapped it — and be a source of pride for future generations who will hopefully learn that there is no one personification of beauty.

Willis has also authored the pioneering book Reflections in Black: A Collection of Photographs of African American Life from 1840 to the Present as well as The Black Female Body and VanDerZee: The Portraits of James VanDerZee. If they are half as arresting as Posing Beauty, then I’ll be a lifelong Willis fan.

This article appears in Oct 20-26, 2009.