Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare: Photography and the African American Freedom Struggle - Softcover

Examines the role photography played in three social movements--anti-lynching, civil rights and black power. . . . by, for example, challenging demeaning representations of black Americans as ignorant or unfit for citizenship.--The Chronicle of Higher Education Raiford's examination of photography's participation during three critical moments in African American history is an exemplary and engaging work that advances the conversation of African Americans and the making of America. . . . [Her] work adds a welcomed voice and perspective to the visual dialogue between past and present.--American Studies Journal An invaluable study of twentieth-century American visual culture.--Journal of American History [Raiford] convincingly shows that framing the movement through photography was as important and effective as boycotts, marches, and sit-ins in waging the struggle against white supremacy.--Journal of Southern History This is a sophisticated study, well above the useful level for public libraries....It is a compelling work unlike anything else presently offered in the field's scholarship.--Tennessee Libraries Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare is a valuable study of how visual culture acquires cognitive truth as politics.--The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

In Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare , Leigh Raiford argues that over the past one hundred years activists in the black freedom struggle have used photographic imagery both to gain political recognition and to develop a different visual vocabulary about black lives. Raiford analyzes why activists chose photography over other media, explores the doubts some individuals had about the strategies, and shows how photography became an increasingly effective, if complex, tool in representing black political interests. Offering readings of the use of photography in the antilynching movement, the civil rights movement, and the black power movement, Raiford focuses on key transformations in technology, society, and politics to understand the evolution of photography's deployment in capturing white oppression, black resistance, and African American life. By putting photography at the center of the long African American freedom struggle, Raiford also explores how the recirculation of these indelible images in political campaigns and art exhibits both adds to and complicates our memory of the events. |Over the past one hundred years, Raiford argues, activists in the black freedom struggle have used photographic imagery both to gain political recognition and to develop a different visual vocabulary about black lives. Offering readings of the use of photography in the antilynching movement, the civil rights movement, and the black power movement, Raiford focuses on key transformations in technology, society, and politics to understand the evolution of photography's deployment in capturing white oppression, black resistance, and African American life.