{"product_id":"photographic-returns-9781478004684","title":"Photographic Returns","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003ePhotographic Returns\u003c\/i\u003e Shawn Michelle Smith traces how historical moments of racial crisis come to be known photographically and how the past continues to inhabit, punctuate, and transform the present through the photographic medium in contemporary art. Smith engages photographs by Rashid Johnson, Sally Mann, Deborah Luster, Lorna Simpson, Jason Lazarus, Carrie Mae Weems, Taryn Simon, and Dawoud Bey, among others. Each of these artists turns to the past—whether by using nineteenth-century techniques to produce images or by re-creating iconic historic photographs—as a way to use history to negotiate the present and to call attention to the unfinished political project of racial justice in the United States. By interrogating their use of photography to recall, revise, and amplify the relationship between racial politics of the past and present, Smith locates a temporal recursivity that is intrinsic to photography, in which images return to haunt the viewer and prompt \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Offering a major contribution to how we think about the relationship between time and photography, Shawn Michelle Smith stuns the reader into seeing familiar texts in new ways. Her scholarship is a model of careful thinking, close reading, clear writing, and historical sensibility. I learned so much from reading this book! It is a spectacular accomplishment.” -- Elspeth H. Brown, author of * Work! A Queer History of Modeling *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003ePhotographic Returns\u003c\/i\u003e is nothing less than a revelation. Shawn Michelle Smith takes us on a deep dive into the telescoping temporality of photography and, in doing so, fundamentally shifts our understanding of how photographic images register backward and forward in time. The hinge point of her study is its sumptuous reading of contemporary artists' use of photography as a critical apparatus that bends time in ways that connect us to the deeper affects of history. Her haunting, subtle, and truly sensuous analysis of the aftereffects of historical photography fundamentally re-visions our conception of the relationship between photography, history, memory, and temporality.” -- Tina M. Campt, author of * Listening to Images *\u003cbr\u003e\"The charm in Smith’s writing lies in its ability to pair images (archival, vintage, popular) with reinterpretations by contemporary artists. These visitations—or, as she calls them, returns—magnify the persistent terror of white supremacy in the United States. Her chapters all bring readers to see the obvious and forgotten aspects of antiblack racism. The book positions these photographs as reminders that justice in the United States has not yet arrived.\" -- Yasmine Espert * Public Books *\u003cbr\u003e\"Seen through their photographic eyes, racial historical events resurface to inspire, challenge, provoke, and provide metaphoric opportunities that reveal and expand conversations in an attempt to energize the social justice movement in the US. A much-needed addition to the literature on the pressing subject of race, representation, and photography, the book includes extensive and informative notes for each chapter and a 16-page insert of color plates.\" -- J. Natal * Choice *\u003cbr\u003e“Smith’s lucid prose and her focus on contemporary artists’ engagements with pressing social issues will make \u003ci\u003ePhotographic Returns \u003c\/i\u003eappealing to advanced undergraduate students. Her implicit and explicit engagements with key concerns in the history of photography, visual culture studies, American studies, and African American studies will be of interest to graduate students and specialists in these fields.” -- Darius Bost * American Literary History *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments  vii\u003cbr\u003e Introduction: Photographic Returns  1\u003cbr\u003e 1. Looking Forward and Looking Back: Rashid Johnson and Frederick Douglass on Photography  16\u003cbr\u003e 2. Photographic Remains: Sally Mann at Antietam  34\u003cbr\u003e 3. The Scene of the Crime: Deborah Luster  61\u003cbr\u003e 4. Photographic Referrals: Lorna Simpson's \u003ci\u003e9 Props\u003c\/i\u003e  93\u003cbr\u003e 5. Afterimages: Jason Lazarus  112\u003cbr\u003e 6. Photographic Reenactments: Carrie Mae Weems's \u003ci\u003eConstructing History\u003c\/i\u003e  133\u003cbr\u003e 7. False Returns: Taryn Simon's \u003ci\u003eThe Innocents\u003c\/i\u003e  152\u003cbr\u003e Coda. A Glimpse Forward: Dawoud Bey's \u003ci\u003eThe Birmingham Project\u003c\/i\u003e  170\u003cbr\u003e Notes  175\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography  213\u003cbr\u003e Index  229","brand":"Duke University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49408975864151,"sku":"9781478004684","price":18.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781478004684.jpg?v=1730504932","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/photographic-returns-9781478004684","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}