As time allows I will also incorporate titles by non-black photographers on black subjects.)

Last year I was invited early on to give two lectures (one in September, the other in November; throughout are excerpts from those lectures) and as I was preparing them it occurred to me to present on the one aspect of the contemporary art world that interests me—publishing. I've always been primarily interested in art in book format, and though I've wanted for years to start my own press to publish the work of black artists, mainly photographers, I had never really done the research to lay the foundation for just why this seemed so important.

Doing the research proved sobering—initially, I couldn't even find 100 titles by black photographers, which plunged me into a depression. How could that be, in the 168 (now 169) years of photography's existence, could there have only ever been fewer than 100 books by or on black photographers? I sent out a survey to about 100 black photographers about their own experiences with publishing, and their responses were also sobering. But it was becoming more clear to me just how important publishing is and just how missing we are from the genre. Consider that

The average duration of an exhibition is anywhere from a couple of weeks to, for original photographs, about 4 months, and most exhibitions only appear in a single venue, which may or may not be located where you are. Though photography books have relatively small print runs—usually between 1,000 and 5,000 copies—the potential for the circulation of images through the printed format is infinitely greater than that for any exhibition, even a touring one.

When I started researching, to be thorough I turned first to the sources that, as a journal editor, I routinely use in seeking new titles. According to its Editor, Darius Himes, the quarterly Photo-eye Booklist “surveys the photography book scene and culls the top 25-30 titles out of literally hundreds of books published each season. Never before has there been such widespread interest in the printed image.” So I combed carefully through the Booklist, looking for titles by black photographers. I looked, in fact, at every book reviewed or advertised from Spring 2005 through Fall 2007. During that time, only 4 titles by or about black photographers appeared in the Booklist:

· Dawoud Bey’s Class Pictures
· Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography
· Un Autre Monde. (the catalog from the Bamako Biennale) VIes Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie
· Malick Sidibé: Photographs

And only 2 had been actually reviewed. I checked Distributed Art Publishers next. From Spring/Summer 2006 through Fall 2007, DAP's catalogs included

· Dawoud Bey’s Class Pictures
· African American Vernacular Photography (images of black subjects, not necessarily by black photographers)
· Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography
· Black Brown, White: Photography from South Africa

Next I checked Aperture’s booklist; Aperture publishes 30 titles per year with a maximum of 3 on emerging photographers, which makes it one of the largest photography book publishers in the business. Combing its 2007 catalogs, including the backlist, I discovered that Aperture has published one title by a black photographer: Bey's Class Pictures.

That's when I sent out the survey, which included these questions:

* How many books have you published as an artist?
* Of those, how many monographs?
* What were the years of publication?
* Have you ever self-published a book?
* If so, what was your print run?
* What was the cost?
* Have you ever paid out-of-pocket for a publication you did not self-publish (including grant money)?
* Have you ever earned a royalty on a publication?
* What is (are) the most recent book title(s) that you have seen by (a) black photographer(s)?Where do you usually learn about new book titles by black photographers?
* What is (are) your favorite book title(s) by (a) black photographer(s)?

When I was an undergraduate in the early 1980s, there were no African American art history courses where I studied, and black photographers weren’t fully integrated into the canon—their publications weren’t represented in our library, which also meant they weren’t in the slide library, which meant they weren’t shown in lectures or in any other way taught in the curriculum. In the era of websites, blogs, mySpace, Facebook, flickr, etc., it is in theory much easier to simply browse the Internet for images that can be quickly downloaded and, even at their low resolution, projected in the classroom. Yet a quick Google search of a list of twenty names of African-American photographers who were prominent in the 1980s yield few results for finding images, let alone personal pages.

Though I have 3 advanced degrees in photography, the following knowledge is self-taught.

Perhaps the best-known book of African-American photography—the photography book equivalent of seeing the first black faces on television—is Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes’ The Sweet Flypaper of Life, the first book published exclusively with work by a black photographer. Sweet Flypaper was a photography/text collaboration originally published in 1955, reprinted in 1967, and reissued by Howard University Press in 1984. According to photographer and photo historian Deborah Willis, at age seven, “sitting on the floor of her Philadelphia home, dreading the weekly ritual of her mother hot-combing her hair,”she saw a library copy of The Sweet Flypaper of Life. After, she assembled the family photo album trying to emulate the organization of images in Flypaper. It was, she recalls, the first time she had seen a book with photographs of black people, and the impact was life-changing. “I could see how much the people looked like my family.”

It was more than a decade before one of the next photography books by a black photographer was published: Gordon Parks published his first book about (not with his own) photography, Flash Photography, in 1947. In all, only 6 photography books were published by or about black photographers prior to 1970.

Beyond DeCarava, Parks, and James VanDerZee, the early 1970s marked the first wave of exhibitions and publications of the work of emerging black photographers. Happening in the midst of the civil rights and Black Arts Movements, photography was the perfect medium of self-representation, poised to capture that defining historical moment. In the 1970s as these early photographers and publications were breaking new ground there were a handful of survey titles to preserve a record of exhibitions and more importantly to introduce the work of more black photographers to a broader audience. For promoting a previously untapped talent base, surveys were essential for cultivating an audience for their work. They were mostly slim publications, about 20–30 pages with maybe a single reproduction by each photographer.

Chief among these was photographer Joe Crawford, who published The Black Photographers’ Annual, the first of ultimately four volumes published between 1973 and 1980 devoted to publishing the work of contemporary African American photographers. 28 titles by or about black photographers were published in the 1970s.

Things began to change more rapidly in the mid-1980s; the decades of the 1980s and 1990s saw the greatest period of publication for books by black photographers, as historians had begun to research and construct a history which had not previously been documented, starting with Valencia Hollins Coar’s A Century of Black Photographers 1840-1960 from 1983,followed soon thereafter by Deborah Willis’ Black Photographers, 1840 - 1940: An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography and An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black Photographers, 1940 - 1988, two exhaustive encyclopedias of black photographers that expanded and updated Coar’s earlier research. In 1986 Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe’s Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers was published, the first book devoted to the history of the careers of black women photographers.

Increasingly the work of black photographers was being curated into conceptual exhibitions, many with catalogs, which moved beyond the introductory nature of earlier surveys to explore the conceptual underpinnings of the increasingly identity-based work of the period. These were perhaps more influential to young photographers like me, as the subject matter and formats were both moving beyond the traditional black and white two-dimensional “straight” documentary image. Two of the best are from 1989:

Black Photographers Bear Witness: 100 Years of Social Protest

Constructed Images: New Photography

with cover images by Christian Walker and Pat Ward Williams, respectively.

Though there were a handful of monographs in the 1980s and 32 books by or about black photographers published in that decade, the 1990s became the golden era of publishing for artists of color, whose early works in survey compilations helped make a name for them. The publishers and thus the intended audiences varied widely, ranging from self-published efforts—mostly artists’ books—to small non-profit gallery catalogs to museums to commercial presses. The overwhelming majority of titles are monographs, both theme books and fine-art publications. 74 books by or about black photographers were published in the 1990s.

As the 2000s debuted, it seemed the publishing would keep apace, with new anthologies, new titles by familiar names, long past due titles from others, and the introduction of new names. Surveys re-emerged, thicker and more comprehensive than ever.

The breadth of work being published is ever-expanding, and the numbers continue to increase—to date, 104 books by or about black photographers have been published (or are slated to be published) in the 00s. Initially, after consulting Photo-eye and DAP, I thought the number was dwindling, coinciding with the death within the art world and the academy, of multiculturalism and in this radical shift away from the art of identity politics—which largely though not exclusively means the work of artists of color. But actually counting the numbers is somewhat more encouraging. However, I definitely don't think the art world is the best and only venue, and of late I have noticed browsing at hip style/design stores here in San Francisco that the only books they are selling by black artists are Kehinde Wiley's Columbus and Jamel Shabazz's Seconds of My Life. (at two separate stores; neither sold both) I would call it a crisis.

Recently, two young women who'd heard my lecture, Intisar & ABG, wrote to me about publishing the list of titles I'd compiled, which prompted me to go back, carefully looking so that I could add any additional titles that I'd missed. I'm now at 251 titles—when I last gave the lecture in November I was at 181. It's better, and although not nearly as dire as I initially thought, at the same time it's not nearly good enough.

As Intisar wrote, she wanted to check them all out and also see what kind of books have been published and why? For what reasons? How many are photojournalism, how many are theme books, how many "fine art?" That prompted me to do a little quick assessment, too, to understand what that number means when it's further broken down. Of the 251, for example, what does it mean that just 6 photographers (DeCarava, Magubane, Parks, L. Simpson, VanDerZee, and Weems) account for 1/3 (78) of the titles, or that just 52—around 20%—are books by or about women photographers (and of those, 20 are by only 2 photographers)? Or that in the history of the medium there have only been 52 books by black women photographers? Hopefully the compilation of this list will be the initiation of some serious inquiries.

So here it is. I have left in the list, for consistency's sake, titles by Gordon Parks that are not on photography, but they are there for reference and are not part of the count (they are also gray). Needless to say, if you know of any titles that are not on the list, please E-mail me the bibliographic information (and ideally a scan of the cover if you have it). Especially if it's your own title—artist's book, self-published, one-of-a-kind—it's all here.

For new, used, and out-of-print books, I recommend bookfinder.com. Whenever possible, PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSELLER. Yes, you usually pay full price. But do you really want to run the risk of them disappearing forever?

MONOGRAPHS

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST all titles

PRE-1970

Parks, Gordon. Flash Photography, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, Inc., 1947.
Parks, Gordon. Camera Portraits: The Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture, New York: F. Watts, 1948.

Parks, Gordon. A Choice of Weapons, New York: Harper and Row, 1966. (autobiographical)-no photos
Cole, Ernest. The House of Bondage, New York: Ridge Press/Random House, 1967.
Parks, Gordon. A Poet and His Camera, New York: Viking Press, 1968.
VanDerZee, James. Reginald McGhee. The World of James Van DerZee: A Visual Record of Black Americans, New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1969.

1970s

DeCarava, Roy. Roy DeCarava, Photographer, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 1971.
Parks, Gordon. Born Black, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1971. (compilation of essays and photographs)
Parks, Gordon. In Love, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1971.
Parks, Gordon. Whispers of Intimate Things, New York: Viking, 1971.
Miner, Leigh Richmond. Edith M. Dabbs. Face of an Island: Leigh Richmond Miner's Photographs of Saint Helena Island, 1971.
The Black Photographer (1908-1970): A Survey, Andover, Massachusetts: Addison Gallery of American Art, 1971. (organized by the James VanDerZee Institute, NY)

The Black Photographer, exhibition catalogue, New York: James VanDerZee Institute, 1973.
Crawford, Joe, editor. The Black Photographers Annual 1, New York: Joe Crawford, 1973.

Higgins, Jr., Chester. Drums of Life, Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1974.
VanDerZee, James. James Van DerZee, Keene Valley, New York: Morgan & Morgan, 1974.
Crawford, Joe, editor. The Black Photographers Annual 2, New York: 1974.

DeCarava, Roy. Roy DeCarava: The Nation's Capital in Photographs, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, 1976.
Scurlock, Addison. The historic photographs of Addison N. Scurlock: June 19-August 29, 1976, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, 1976.
Crawford, Joe, editor. The Black Photographers Annual 3, Brooklyn, 1976.

Currin, Tony. Black Woman: Photographs, Camera/Graphic Press, 1978.
Magubane, Peter and Zindzi Mandela. Black As I Am, foreword Andrew Young, Los Angeles: Guild of Tutors Press, 1978.
Magubane, Peter. Magubane's South Africa, foreword by Andrew Young, Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.
Magubane, Peter. Marshall Lee. Soweto, contributing and picture editor, Dawn Lindberg, Nelson, 1978.
Parks, Gordon. Flavio, New York: Norton, 1978.
Parks, Gordon. To Smile in Autumn, New York: Norton, 1978.
Sleet, Jr., Moneta. Faces of America, Community Relations-Social Development Commission, 1978.
VanDerZee, James. Owen Dodson and Camille Billops. The Harlem Book of the Dead, Dobbs Ferry, New York: Morgan & Morgan, 1978.

Magubane, Peter. Jill Johnson. Soweto Speaks, A. D. Donker, 1979.
VanDerZee, James. Reginald McGee and Jim Haskins). James Van DerZee: The Picture-Takin' Man, New York: Dodd Mead & Co., 1979; reissued Africa World Press, 1991.

1980s

Barboza, Anthony. Black Borders, New York: A. Barboza, 1980.
Crawford, Joe, editor. The Black Photographers Annual 4, Brooklyn: Another View, Inc., 1980.
Self-Portrait [Salimah Ali, Jules Allen, Anthony Barboza, Hugh Bell, Dawoud Bey, Michael Britto, Adger W. Cowans, Pat Davis, Daniel Dawson, Mel Dixon, Al Fennar, Bob Fletcher, Roland Freeman, Vince Frye, Al Green, Gail Hansberry, Leroy Henderson, Photographs by Ali, Salimah, Jules Allen, Anthony Barboza, Hugh Bell, Dawoud Bey, Michael Britto, Adger W. Cowans, Pat Davis, Daniel Dawson, Mel Dixon, Al Fennar, Bob Fletcher, Roland Freeman, Vince Frye, Al Green, Gail Hansberry, Leroy Henderson, Photographers Studio], New York City, Springfield, MA: Studio Museum in Harlem, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts in cooperation with Harambee Holiday, Inc, 1980.

Cowans, Adger. Moments, 1981.
DeCarava, Roy. Roy DeCarava, San Francisco: Friends of Photography, 1981.
Freeman, Roland. Southern Roads/ City Pavements: Photographs of Black Americans by Roland L. Freeman, exhibition catalogue, New York: International Center of Photography, 1981.
Parks, Gordon. Shannon, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1981.

Magubane, Peter. Black Child, Random House, 1982.
VanDerZee, James. Deborah Willis. Harlem Heyday: The Photography of James VanDerZee: Portraits of the Harlem Community During the 1920s and 1930s, New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1982.

Barboza, Anthony. Introspect: The Photography of Anthony Barboza, New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1983.
Marc, Stephen. Urban Notions, Chicago: Ataraxia, 1983.
Moutoussamy-Ashe, Jeanne. Daufuskie Island: A Photographic Essay, University of South Carolina Press, 1983; reissued as Daufuskie Island: 25^th Anniversary Edition, University of South Carolina Press, 2007.
VanDerZee, James. McGhee, Reginald. James Van DerZee's New York, Boston: Massachusetts College of Art, 1983.
Contemporary Afro-American Photography, Oberlin College, 1983.
Coar, Valencia Hollins. A Century of Black Photographers 1840-1960, Rhode Island School of Design, 1983.

Burkhart (Kenneth C.), exhibit curator. The Black Photographer: An American View, Chicago: BlackWoman Collaborative, 1985.
Willis, Deborah. Black Photographers, 1840 - 1940: An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography, New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1985.

Holder, Geoffrey. Adam, New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1986.
Magubane, Peter. Soweto: The Fruit of Fear, Africa World Press, 1986.
Magubane, Peter. June 16: The Fruit of Fear, Skotaville, 1986.
Polk, Prentice Herman. Louise E. Shaw. P.H. Polk: Southern Photographer, Atlanta: Nexus Contemporary Art Center/Press, 1986.
Roberts, Richard Samuel. Thomas L. Johnson and Phillip C. Dunn, eds. A True Likeness: The Black South of Richard Samuel Roberts 1920 - 1936, Columbia, South Carolina: Bruccoli Clark; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1986.
Moutoussamy-Ashe, Jeanne. Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers, New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986.

Cooper, Clement. Presence, Manchester: Cornerhouse Publications, 1988.
Cowans, Adger (illustrator). Mimi Kasbah. Dirty Dancing, Dell, 1988.
Hinton, Milt. Bass Line: The Stories and Photographs of Milt Hinton, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988.
Reed, Eli, and Fouad Ajami. Beirut: City of Regrets, New York & London: W.W. Norton, 1988.
Sligh, Clarissa. What's Happening with Momma, Women's Studio Workshop, 1988, edition of 150.
Dister, Alan, ed. Black Photography in America. Photographs by Gordon Parks, Roy DeCarava, James Van Der Zee, and Coreen Simpson. Pavillion des Arts, Paris, 1988.

Sligh, Clarissa. Reading Dick and Jane with Me, Visual Studies Workshop, 1989, edition of 1000.
Willis, Deborah, et al. Black Photographers Bear Witness: 100 Years of Social Protest, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Williams College Museum of Art, 1989.
Willis, Deborah. Constructed Images: New Photography, exhibition catalog, New York: The New York Public Library, 1989.
Willis, Deborah. An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black Photographers, 1940 - 1988, New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989.

1990s

Nance, Marilyn. Religion: African American Spiritual Expressions, Syracuse, New York: Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, 1990.
Weems, Carrie Mae. Then What: Photographs and Folklore, Buffalo: CEPA Gallery, 1990.
Convergence: 8 Photographers, exhibition catalogue, Boston: Photographic Resource Center, 1990.

O'Grady, Lorraine. Wilson, Judith. Lorraine O'Grady: Photomontages, New York: INTAR Gallery, 1991.
Moore, Charles. Michael S. Durham. Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore, New York: Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 1991.
Simpson, Lorna. Lorna Simpson, exhibition catalogue, Hamilton, New York: Colgate University, 1991.
Sligh, Clarissa. Clarissa Sligh: The Presence of Memory 24, Robert Menschel Photography Gallery, 1991.

Braithwaite, Hilton. Hilton Braithwaite 30, Robert Menschel Photography Gallery, 1992.
Marc, Stephen. The Black Trans-Atlantic Experience, Chicago: Columbia College (University of Illinois Press), 1992.
Simpson, Coreen. Aboutface, New York: Jamaica Arts Center, 1992.
Simpson, Lorna. Lorna Simpson: Untitled 54, San Francisco: The Friends of Photography, 1992.
Simpson, Lorna. Wright, Beryl, and Saidiya Hartman. Lorna Simpson: For the Sake of the Viewer, Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, 1992.
Smith-Murray, Ming. A Ming Breakfast: Grits and Scrambled Moments, New York: de Ming Dynasty, 1992.
Weems, Carrie Mae. And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People, San Francisco, San Francisco Art Institute, 1992.
Williams, Pat Ward. Pat Ward Williams: Probable Cause, Philadelphia: Goldie Paley Gallery and Moore College of Art and Design, 1992.
Withers, Ernest. Let Us March On! Selected Civil Rights Photographs of Ernest C. Withers, 1955-1968, Boston: Massachusetts College of Art and Roxbury: Afro Scholar Press, 1992.
Bailey, David A., and Stuart Hall, et al, eds. Ten.8: Critical Decade: Black British Photography in the 80s, Vol. 2, No. 3, Birmingham, England: Ten.8 Limited, Spring 1992.
Charles, Roland & Toyomi Igus, ed. Life in a Day of Black L.A.: The Way We See It: L.A.'s Black Photographers Present a New Perspective on Their City, University of California Center for African American Studies, 1992.
Easter, Cheers, Brooks. Songs of My People: African Americans: A Self-Portrait, Little, Brown & Company, 1992.
Willis, Deborah. Early Black Photographers, 1840-1940 (postcards), New York: The New Press, 1992.

Ball, J.P. Deborah Willis. J.P. Ball: Daguerrean and Studio Photographer, New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1993.
Moutoussamy-Ashe, Jeanne. Daddy and Me: A Photo Story of Arthur Ashe and His Daughter, Camera, Alfred a Knopf, 1993.
Parks, Gordon. Darlene Donloe. Gordon Parks: Photographer, Writer, Composer, Film Maker (Melrose Square Black American Series), Melrose Publishing Company, 1993.
Middlebrook, Willie. Family: Installation and PhotographicPainting^TM, exhibition catalogue, Woodland Hills, California: Pierce College Art Gallery, 1993. Scott, Everett. William Howard Adams. Grounds for Change: Major Gardens of the Twentieth Century, Little, Brown & Co., 1993.
Smith, Morgan & Marvin. Rachleff, Melissa. Images of Harlem 1935 - 1952: A Brief Biography of Morgan and Marvin Smith, exhibition catalogue, Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Art Museum, 1993.
VanDerZee, James. VanDerZee: Photographer 1886-1983, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993.
Weems, Carrie Mae. Andrea Kirsh and Susan Fisher Sterling. Carrie Mae Weems, Washington, D.C.: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1993.

Chong, Albert. Ancestral Dialogues: The Photographs of Albert Chong (Untitled no. 57), San Francisco: The Friends of Photography, 1994.
Fani-Kayode, Rotimi. Black Male/ White Male, LPC Group, 1988; reissued London: Gay Men's Press, 1994.
Higgins, Jr., Chester. Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa, New York: Bantam Books, 1994.
Parks, Gordon. Arias in Silence, Little, Brown & Company/Bulfinch, 1994/2002.
Weems, Carrie Mae. The Fabric Workshop/Museum, Philadelphia, The Fabric Museum, 1994.
Willis, Deborah, ed. Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography, New York: The New Press, 1994.

Bey, Dawoud. Dawoud Bey: Portraits 1975 - 1995, Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1995.
Simpson, Lorna. Lorna Simpson, exhibition catalogue, Vienna: Weiner Secession, 1995.
Staggers, Rundu. Soul Tapestry, New York: St Martin's Press, 1995.
Weems, Carrie Mae. In These Islands, University of Alabama, Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, 1995.
Williams, Cecil. Freedom & Justice: Four Decades of the Civil Rights Struggle As Seen by a Black Photographer of the Deep South, Macon: Mercer University Press, 1995.

Cooper, Clement. Deep (with ambient soundtrack CD), Art Data, 1996.
Ellis, Darrel. Darrel Ellis, exhibition catalogue, New York: Art in General, Inc., 1996.
DeCarava, Roy. Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996.
Hinton, Milt. Overtime: The Jazz Photographs of Milt Hinton, Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate, 1996.
Magubane, Peter. Nelson Mandela: Man of Destiny: A Pictorial Biography, Don Nelson, 1996.
Parks, Gordon. Glimpses Toward Infinity, Boston or Canada: Little, Brown & Company/Bulfinch, 1996.
Sligh, Clarissa. Hiroshima Hopes and Dreams, 1996-1997 (one-of-a-kind).
Staggers, Rundu. Body and Soul: Black Erotica by Rundu, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1996.
Weisinger, Jean. Imagery: Women Writers, Portraits by Jean Weisinger (Aunt Lute's Weekly Planner 1997), San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1996.
Bell, Clare, Okwui Enwezor, et al. In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present, New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1996.
Sullivan, George. Black Artists in Photography, 1840 - 1940, New York: Cobblehill Books, 1996.
Willis, Deborah. Million Man March, New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1996.
Willis, Deborah. The Family of Black America, New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1996.

Gaskins, Bill. Good and Bad Hair, New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
Hinton, Milt. Overtime: The Jazz Photographs of Milt Hinton (postcards), Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate, 1997.
Keïta, Seydou. Magnin, André, ed. Seydou Keïta, Zurich, Berlin and New York: Scalo Books, 1997.
Kempadoo, Roshini. Roshini Kempadoo: Monograph, London: Autograph, 1997.
Okwu, Julian C. R. Face Forward: Young African American Men in a Critical Age, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997.
Parks, Gordon, et al. Half Past Autumn: A Retrospective, New York: Bulfinch Press, 1997.
Parks, Gordon. Harlem, Toronto: Lumiere Press, 1997.
Reed, Eli. Black in America, New York & London: W.W. Norton, 1997.

Sidibé, Malick. Malick Sidibé, Fotografie, 1962-1976: Clubs Und Twist Und Chats Sauvages, IFA Germany, 1997.

Magubane, Peter. Vanishing Cultures of South Africa: Changing Customs in a Changing World, Struik, 1998.
Polk, Prentice Herman. Chester Higgins, Jr. Through These Eyes: The Photographs of P.H. Polk, exhibition catalogue, Newark, Delaware: The University Gallery of the University of Delaware, 1998.
Roberts, Richard Samuel. Dinah Johnson. All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts 1920 - 1936, Henry Holt & Company, 1998.
Simpson, Lorna. Lorna Simpson: Interior/Exterior, Full/Empty, Ohio State University, 1998.
Sleet, Jr., Moneta. Special Moments in African-American History, 1955-1996: The Photographs of Moneta Sleet, Jr., Ebony Magazine's Pulitzer Prize Winner, Johnson Publishing, 1998.
Smith, Morgan & Marvin. Harlem: The Vision of Morgan and Marvin Smith, exhibition catalogue, University Press of Kentucky, 1998.
Weems, Carrie Mae. Ritual and Revolution, Berlin: Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, 1998.
Anthologie de la Photographie africaine et de l'Océan Indien XIXe & XXe siècles, Editions Revue Noire, 1998.
Contact Sheet 95 (Eclectic Flavour: Joy Gregory, Roshini Kempadoo, Addela Khan, Franklyn Rodgers, and Yinka Shonibare), Syracuse, New York: Light Work Visual Studies, Inc., 1998.

Allen, James Latimer. Holloway, Camara Dia. Portraiture & the Harlem Renaissance: The Photographs of James Latimer Allen, New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1999.
Mthethwa, Zwelethu. Michael Godby. Zwelethu Mthethwa, Italy: Marco Noire Editore, 1999.
Okwu, Julian C. R. As I Am: Young African American Women in a Critical Age, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999.
Parks, Gordon. Midway: Portrait of a Daytona Beach Neighborhood, Southeast Museum of Photography, 1999.
Sidibé, Malick. Malick Sidibé, Andre Magnin, Scalo Publishers; 1st Scalo Ed edition, 1999.
Simpson, Lorna. Scenarios: Recent Work by Lorna Simpson, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1999.
Watts, Lewis. Contact Sheet 101 (Lewis Watts: South to West Oakland), Syracuse, New York: Light Work Visual Studies, Inc., 1999.
Weems, Carrie Mae. Thomas Piché Jr., et al. Carrie Mae Weems: Recent Work, 1992 - 1998, New York: George Braziller, 1999.

2000s

Agins, Michelle V. Joan Anderson. Rookie: A First Year with WNBA, Dutton Juvenile, 2000.
Chong, Albert. Contact Sheet 105 (Albert Chong: Across the Void), Syracuse, New York: Light Work Visual Studies, Inc., 2000.
Cooper, Clement. Primary, London: Autograph, 2000.
Cowans, Adger. Keith Michael Brown. Sacred Bond: Black Men and Their Mothers, Little Brown and Company, 2000.
Cunningham, Michael. Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats, Doubleday, 2000.
Goodridge. Brothers. John Vincent Jezierski. Enterprising Images: The Goodridge Brothers (Great Lakes Books), Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000.
Higgins, Jr., Chester. Elder Grace, New York: Bulfinch 2000.
Magubane, Peter. African Renaissance, 2000.
Parks, Gordon. A Star for Noon - An Homage to Women in Images Poetry and Music, New York: Bulfinch Press, 2000.
Parks, Gordon. Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told By Those Who Lived It, Better World, 2000.
Scott, Everett. William Howard Adams. Nature Perfected: Gardens Through History, Perseus Distribution Services, 2000.
Sligh, Clarissa. Voyage(r): Tourist Map to Japan, Nexus Press, 2000.
Udé, Iké. Beyond Decorum: The Photography of Iké Udé, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The MIT Press, 2000.
Weems, Carrie Mae. The Hampton Project, New York: Aperture, 2000.
Weems, Carrie Mae. Telling Histories, Boston University Art Gallery, 2000.
Withers, Ernest. Pictures Tell the Story: Ernest C. Withers Reflections in History, Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2000.
Willis, Deborah. Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000.

Agins, Michelle V. Julia Chance. Sisterfriends: Portraits of Sisterly Love, Pocket Books, 2001.
Baptiste, Marc. Beautiful: Nudes, New York: Universe Publishing, 2001.
Cox, Renee. American Family, New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 2001.
Konte, Keba Armand. Photomontage on Wood, Black Star Press, 2001.
Logan, Fern. The Artist Portrait Series: Images of Contemporary African American Artists, Southern Illinois University Press, 2001.
Lyons, Lauri. Flag: An American Story, Vision On Publishing, 2001.
Magubane, Peter. Sandra Klopper. African Heritage Series: Homesteads, 2001.
Magubane, Peter. Sandra Klopper. African Heritage Series: Dress and Adornment, 2001.
Magubane, Peter. Sandra Klopper. African Heritage Series - Ceremonies, 2001.
Magubane, Peter and Charlene Smith. Soweto, 2001.
Magubane, Peter. Sandra Klopper. African Heritage Series - Arts and Crafts, 2001.
Magubane, Peter. Sandra Klopper. The BaNtwane, 2001.
Parks, Gordon. African Journey, Graphis/Watson-Guptill, 2001.
Pugh, Karen. Patrick Henry Bass. In Our Own Image: Treasured African-American Traditions, Journeys & Icons, Running Press Book Publishers, 2001.
Moutoussamy-Ashe, Jeanne. The African Flower: Singing of Angels, self-published, 2001.
Shabazz, Jamel. A Time Before Crack, New York: powerHouse Books, 2001.
Sidibé, Malick. Manthia Diawara. The 1960s in Bamako: Malick Sidibé and James Brown, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2001.
Sidibé, Malick. Malick Sidibé, photographe, Oeil Editions, 2001.
Sidibé and Seydou Keïta. You Look Beautiful Like That: The Portrait Photographs of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001.
Smith, Matthew Jordan. Sepia Dreams: A Celebration of Black Achievement Through Words and Images, St. Martin's Press, 2001.
Staggers, Rundu. Wet Dreams: An Erotic Photographic Journey of Black Men, Atlanta: Rundu Enterprises, Inc., 2001.
Withers, Ernest. The Memphis Blues Again: Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs, New York: Viking Studio Books/ Viking Press, Inc., 2001.
Hall, Stuart and Mark Sealy, editors. Different, London: Phaidon Press, 2001.
Millstein, Barbara. Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers, Merrell Holberton, 2001.

Allen, Jules. Black Bodies, Delano Greenidge Editions, 2002.
Anderson, Henry Clay. Separate But Equal: The Mississippi Photographs of Henry Clay Anderson, New York: Public Affairs Press, 2002.
Gleaton, Tony. Contact Sheet 116 (Tony Gleaton: Tengo casi 500 años - I have almost 500 years: Africa's Legacy in Mexico, Central and South America), Syracuse, New York: Light Work Visual Studies, Inc., 2002.
Harris, Charles "Teenie." One Shot Harris: The Photographs of Charles "Teenie" Harris, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002.
Harris, Lyle Ashton. Lyle Ashton Harris, Gregory R. Miller & Company, 2002.
Sidibé, Malick, Samuel Fosso, Seydou Keïta. Simon Njami. Portraits of Pride: Samuel Fosso, Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, Vestafrikanskt Porträttfotografi/West African Portrait Photography, Denmark: 2002.
Simpson, Lorna. Kellie Jones, et al. Lorna Simpson, Phaidon, 2002.
Simpson, Lorna. Lorna Simpson, Ediciones Universidad Salamanca, 2002.
VanDerZee, James. Cheryl Finley. Harlem Guaranteed, New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2002.

Baptiste, Marc. Intimate: Nudes by Marc Baptiste, New York: Universe Publishing, 2003.
Blue, Carroll Parrott. The Dawn at My Back, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.
Cunningham, Michael. Spirit of Harlem: A Portrait of America's Most Exciting Neighborhood, Doubleday, 2003.
DeCarava, Roy. The Sound I Saw: The Jazz Photographs of Roy DeCarava, Phaidon, 2003.
Konte, Keba Armand. Michelle Marcotte. Hands, Two Bears, 2003.
Parks, Gordon. The Sun Stalker: A Novel Based on the Life of Joseph Mallord William Turner, Ruder Finn Press, 2003.
Shabazz, Jamel. Back in the Days, New York: powerHouse Books, 2003.
Sidibé, Malick. André Magnin. Malick Sidibé: Photographs. The Hassleblad Award 2003, Hasselblad Center / Steidl, Goteborg / Gottingen, 2003.
VanDerZee, James. Kobena Mercer. James VanDerZee 55, Phaidon, 2003.
White, Wendel A. Small Towns, Black Lives: African American Communities in Southern New Jersey, Noyes Museum of Art, 2003.
Willis, Deborah, et al. A Small Nation of People: W.E.B. DuBois & African American Portraits of Progress, Amistad, 2003.
Willis, Deborah. Black A Celebration of Culture, New York: Hylas, 2003.
Contact Sheet 124 (Embracing Eatonville: Dawoud Bey, Lonnie Graham, Carrie Mae Weems, and Deborah Willis), Syracuse, New York: Light Work Visual Studies, Inc., 2003.

Anderson, Henry Clay. Separate But Equal: Images from the Segregated South, Perseus Book Group, 2004.
Cooper, Clement. Sisters, Khadija Productions, 2004.
Graham, Lonnie. Contact Sheet 128 (Lonnie Graham), Syracuse, New York: Light Work Visual Studies, Inc., 2004.
Gregory, Joy. Objects of Beauty, London: Chris Boot, 2004.
Higgins, Jr., Chester. Echoes of the Spirit, New York: Doubleday, 2004.
Kamoinge. The Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family, New York: Atria Books, 2004.
Pollard, Ingrid. Postcards Home, London: Boot Editions, 2004.
Sidibé, Malick. Malick Sidibé: Photographs, Steidl Verlag, 2004.
Sligh, Clarissa. Wrongly Bodied Two, Women's Studio Workshop, 2004.
VanDerZee, James. Colin Westerbeck and Dawoud Bey. James VanDerZee Studio, Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2004.

Cunningham, Michael. Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair, Doubleday, 2005.
Magubane, Peter. Sandra Klopper. AmaNdebele, Sunbird, 2005.
Parks, Gordon. Eyes With Winged Thoughts: Poems and Photographs, Atria/Pocket Books, 2005.
Parks, Gordon. Voices in the Mirror-An Autobiography, Harlem Moon Classics, 2005.
Parks, Gordon. A Hungry Heart-A Memoir, Atria, 2005.
Scipio,Ricardo. George Elliott Clarke. Illuminated Verses, Canadian Scholars Press, 2005.
Shabazz, Jamel. The Last Sunday in June, New York: powerHouse Books, 2005.
Weems, Carrie Mae. The Louisiana Project, Newcomb Art Gallery, 2005.
Willis, Deborah. Family History Memory: Recording African American Life, New York: Hylas, 2005.
Njami, Simon, et al. Bamako 2005: Un autre monde ; 6e rencontres africaines de la photographie, édition bilingue français-anglais, Eric Koehler, 2005.

Baptiste, Marc. Innocent: Nudes by Marc Baptiste, Random House, Inc., 2006.
Fosso, Samuel. Samuel Fosso, 5 Continents Editions, 2006.
Parks, Gordon. Ann Parr. Gordon Parks: No Excuses, Pelican, 2006.
Simpson, Lorna. Lorna Simpson, Harry N. Abrams in association with the American Federation of Arts, 2006.
Smith, Matthew Jordan. Lost and Found, Filipacchi Publishing, 2006.
Thomas, Hank Willis and Kambui Olujimi. Winter in America, 81 Press, 2006.
Williams, Cecil. Outside the Box in Dixie: Remembering An Era of Extraordinary Courage and Resilience, Williams Assoc, 2006.
Enwezor, Okwui. Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, Gerhard: Steidl Druckerei und Verlag, 2006.
Black Brown, White: Photography from South Africa, Verlag Fur Moderne Kunst, Nürnberg, 2006.

Baptiste, Marc. Marc Baptiste Nudes: Nudes by Marc Baptiste, New York: Universe Publishing, 2007.
Bey, Dawoud. Class Pictures, New York: Aperture, 2007.
Campos-Pons, Maria Magdalena. Okwui Enwezor. Everything Is Separated by Water, Yale University Press, 2007.
Cunningham, Michael. Jewels: 50 Phenomenal Black Women Over 50, Little, Brown and Company, 2007.
Davis, Jr., Sammy. Burt Boyar. Photo by Sammy Davis, Jr., Harper Entertainment, 2007.
Parks, Gordon. Bare Witness, Random House/Skira, 2007.
Ross, Carol. Pop: A Celebration of Black Fatherhood, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2007.
Shabazz, Jamel. Seconds of My Life, New York: powerHouse Books, 2007.
Williams, William Earle. Contact Sheet 140 (William Earle Williams: Unsung Heroes - African American Soldiers in the Civil War), Syracuse, New York: Light Work Visual Studies, Inc., 2007.
Blank, Derek. Rachel Vassel. Daughters of Men: Portraits of African-American Women and Their Fathers, Amistad, 2007.

Hinton, Milt. Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs, Vanderbilt University Press, 2008.
Sidibé, Malick. Chemises, Steidl, 2008.

Marc, Stephen. Passage on the Underground Railroad, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009?
Thomas, Hank Willis. [Title unknown], New York: Aperture, forthcoming (date unknown).