African American Vernacular Photography: Selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection, Steidl/ICP, March 2006, 120 pages, 11 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches, ISBN-10:3865212255; ISBN-13: 978-3865212252, US $25.

From the publisher’s site:

This book, which accompanies an exhibition of the same title on view at the International Center of Photography, presents an extraordinary group of images of African Americans in a variety of genres and poses: formal studio portraits, casual snapshots, images of children, images of uniformed soldiers, wedding portraits, so-called “Southern-views” made for tourist consumption. While some of the sitters are celebrities of the day, the majority are unnamed Americans posing for their photographic portrait. They attest to photography’s ability to both record personal history for private uses and to been seen as a document of history in a wider context.

The collection of about 1600 photographs date from 1860 to 1960 and was given to ICP in 1990 by Daniel Cowin. The images span a range of processes and formats — postcards, stereographs, cartes-de-visite, tintypes, albumen prints, and gelatin silver prints. Together they provide an important window into African American life during the period. The book will reproduce seventy color plates from the collection and includes essays by Brian Wallis and Deborah Willis and an annotated checklist.