March 22, 2021
A look towards and from blackness. EXIT 81 addresses the subject of blackness from a broad and complex sensibility. Throughout the issue, we have dealt with notions such as the construction of the (political) black body, the awareness of blackness as identity or the expression and experience of the ever-present structural racism.
Photography as failure for self-representation (particularly of black people) is the subject that Leigh Raiford introduces in a text focused on Erica Deeman and her enthusiasm around the expansion of photography as a field; Esther (Mayoko) Ortega y Rubén H. Bermúdez discuss about the transformations that Afro-Spaniard photography has experienced. In the section dossier we find very plural perspectives on the theme: the Jaimaican Portraits by Albert Chong; the “Americas” series by Lyle Ahston Harris oriented on the terms “whiteface” and “blackface”; Seydou Keïta’s classic portraits in Mali; the “Afropean” series by Johny Pitts, interested in documenting the everyday of black diaspora in Europe, trying not to fall in exoticization or mannerism; Carrie Mae Weems’ work, which problematizes the concept of “people of colour” addressing the Afro-American community; the “Reducción” series by Felipe Romero Beltrán, focused on police violence suffered by the black community in cities like Madrid; the practice of Andrew Jackson, who explores the intersection between Britishness, class and masculinity; or Project Diaspora by Omar Victor Diop, a work in which he claims the narratives of historically relevant African people outside of Africa.
In Portfolio, the section in which we give space to the most interesting photographers from the latest generations, we present Virginia Villacilsa, Catarina Osorio de Castro, Bénédicte Blondeau and Federica Landi.
EXIT 81 shows that, despite nobody is neither absolutely black nor purely white, colour seems to draw too much attention.
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Editorial:
Dark, almost black
Texts:
Leigh Raiford, Shifting Photography’s Grounds
Esther (Mayoko) Ortega and Rubén H. Bermúdez, What connect us
Artists:
Terje Abusdal, Lyle Ashton Harris, Bénédicte Blondeau, Albert Chong, Angelica Dass, Erica Deeman, Adji Dieye, Agnes Essonti, Rubén H. Bermúdez, Andrew Jackson, Seydou Keïta, Federica Landi, Tiffany López Ganet (Ebebe Miranda), Carrie Mae Weems, Megane Mercury, Zanele Muholi, Catarina Osorio de Castro, Johny Pitts, Heidi Ramírez, Felipe Romero Beltrán, Omar Victor Diop, Virginia Villacisla.
Next issue: EXIT 82 “Feelings”
About EXIT
A quarterly thematic magazine on contemporary photography and visual arts. Founded in 1999, EXIT is an international publication on contemporary photography and culture. Each issue revolves around a specific theme that brings together the photographic work of the most compelling artists of our days combined with the texts of renowned specialists in the field. The unique contemporary perspective and sophisticated design that EXIT offers has been awarded with the prestigious Kraszna Krauss Prize, in 2003 and the Lucie Award to the Best Photography Magazine of the Year, in 2015. In 2020 we changed the format and logo but keeping the essence of the magazine, we also launched the Portfolio section in which we give visibility to emerging photographers. A fresh and agile section that works as an autonomous capsule with respect to the monographic content of the rest of the publication.
