The Fair hosts over 200 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, and independent artist/publishers presenting a diverse range of the best in contemporary art publications.

I wanted to see what kind of titles were going to be featured and to get a sense of the scope and focus of this book fair. My interest, of course, was books by African Diaspora photographers, though any African Diaspora artists would do. As it turned out, this was a really long journey to discover just a couple of new titles,* though I was hardly surprised that there were so few. I came away with the persistent question that pesters me (and many others)—where are the publications by and about black artists?

To be fair, NYABF does include some really interesting vendors as well as some terrific work by an international group of artists. After a great chat with cartoonist/activist Rebecca Migdal about her collaboration with the Yes Men, I picked up a copy of World War 3, to which she contributed (I’m really interested in the idea of graphic novels and comics), and also Andrew Laties’ Rebel Bookseller: How to Improvise Your Own Indie Store and Beat Back the Chains and had a good chat with him; he told me about Myles C. Pinkney’s photo-illustrated children’s books which I’ll be adding to the list of titles by black photographers. I also fell in love with Lubok Books‘ gorgeous letterpress-printed volumes and it’s probably a good thing for my budget that he didn’t take credit cards or checks, because I wanted them all, athough if they continue to weigh on my mind I have two more days…I also loved virtually all of the small titles from Coracle—I could have bought them all as gifts.

Henry Roy, Spirit, 2009

One photographer whose name I didn’t recognize was Henry Roy, so I wrote down his name to, well, check to see if he is black. It sounds crass but I have a budget and would rather keep my collecting focus narrow to either black artists or black subjects, which aren’t always one and the same. Roy’s new publication is titled Spirit, and now that I see his site I may have to go back and get his book. A glance at Amazon.com reveals another Roy title, Out Of the Blue, which isn’t listed on his site, so Roy was a real discovery for me.

Gregory R. Miller & Co. had Lyle Ashton Harris’ Blow Up from 2008 displayed; I asked about the forthcoming title, Excessive Exposure: The Complete Chocolate Portraits, and Eva, the rep, let me know that although the book won’t be out until spring there is a PDF review copy available now, so I’ll be requesting that to review here. I’m very excited about another Lyle publication; Eva did share with me that Lyle’s eponymous first book with Gregory Miller was also the title that launched Gregory Miller’s press and that he regards Lyle as the reason he’s a publisher. That was great to hear.

Aperture had Hank Willis Thomas’ Pitch Blackness in the inventory at their booth, though not on display; I was so relieved to see it there that I forgot to check for Dawoud Bey’s Class Pictures. As I posted here recently, their Zwelethu Mthethwa monograph is delayed until 2010.

Kehinde Wiley, Black Light

powerHouse Books had the one new title I purchased (though on my way back I stopped at Strand Books and it was about $20 cheaper there [patronize Strand at your discretion]): Kehinde Wiley’s Black Light. It’s a sumptuous yet slender full-color folio, and I don’t think it’s coincidence that Wiley is primarily known as a painter and thus an “artist” versus “photographer,” and a bit of an art star at that. I think this kind of work is more saleable—perhaps it’s more striking on the shelf alongside all of the other new titles out there? But it’s a great-looking book and a great addition; I can’t wait to delve further into it. I also picked up powerHouse’s Fall/Winter 2009-2010 catalog but haven’t had a chance to peruse it. Hopefully it will yield some more titles.

*Luckily, I was able to pick up the DAP catalog and while they aren’t strictly photographers, artists-who-use-photography Glenn Ligon and Rashid Johnson both have new monographs:

Glenn Ligon, Some Changes

Glenn Ligon, Some Changes

Glenn Ligon is one of the preeminent members of a generation of American artists who came to prominence in the late 1980s with conceptually-based paintings, photographs and text-oriented works concerning the social, linguistic and political constructions of race, gender and sexuality. Incorporating sources as diverse as photographic scrapbooks and Richard Pryor’s stand-up comedy routines–his lush coal-dust paintings of excerpts from James Baldwin’s 1955 essay “Stranger in the Village,” for instance–Ligon’s art is a meditation on representation of the self in relation to culture and history. Handsomely designed with a hardcover slipcase, Some Changes is the artist’s first significant monograph. Well-illustrated texts by critics and curators Wayne Baerwaldt, Huey Copeland, Darby English, Wayne Koestenbaum and Mark Nash survey Ligon’s works from 1982 to 2005, and a candid interview with Toronto artist Stephen Andrews delves into Ligon’s personal insights and professional experiences.

Rashid Johnson, Sharpening My Oyster Knife

Rashid Johnson, Sharpening My Oyster Knife

Rashid Johnson belongs to a generation of young African-American artists that takes an extremely critical approach to the search for its cultural roots. His artistic strategies, which include photography, painting and sculpture, performance and beyond, are aesthetically nonconformist and politically provocative.

It was interesting going to this just after having added several new titles to this site in the last week by artists I’d never heard of—that sense of discovery led me to hope that there would be similar revelations at a fair of this size and scope. Let’s say that, on average, each vendor brought 10 books (some had only one while some had dozens)—that would make more than 2,000 titles represented at this fair. To have come away with only two new titles by African Diaspora photographers is beyond under-representation. The fact that among these there are no new titles by black women artists is especially disappointing. I want to think that there are titles about which I don’t know because those artists are just off my radar, or even those who might read these don’t think to send info on their own titles. I think I might have more luck studying the bookshelves of my gracious host this weekend.

Alright, now I’m off to sleep.