The Image of Whiteness: Contemporary Photography and Racialization

The invention and continuance of the ‘white race’ is not just a political, social, and legal phenomenon – it is also visual. Photography has always played, and continues to play, an integral role in the maintenance of the political and social hegemony of ‘whiteness’. This title introduces readers to important extracts from the troubling story of whiteness, describing its falsehoods, its paradoxes, and its oppressive nature, and highlights some of the crucial work contemporary photographic artists are doing to subvert and critique its image and its continuing power.

Featuring Abdul Abdullah, David Birkin, Sutapa Biswas, Nancy Burson, Broomberg & Chanarin, Libita Clayton, Buck Ellison, Sophie Gabrielle, Ken Gonzales-Day, Yasmin Gunaratnam, Stacy Kranitz, Michelle Dizon & Viet Le, Nate Lewis, Agata Madejska, Richard Misrach, Kajal Nisha Patel, John Lucas & Claudia Rankine, David Roediger, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Hank Willis Thomas, Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, George Yancy