PHO150 Digital Photography: Lorna Simpson

One of the leading African-American artists of her generation, Lorna Simpson first became well known in the mid-1980s with large-scale photographs examining racial and gender identity. The shadowy, foreboding atmosphere of these works suggests still images from film noir subjects, and they depict urban locales.

In Photographic Returns Shawn Michelle Smith traces how historical moments of racial crisis come to be known photographically and how the past continues to inhabit, punctuate, and transform the present through the photographic medium in contemporary art.

From well-known luminaries of the medium such as Arbus, Goldin, Lange, Cunningham, Cindy Sherman and Annie Leibovitz, to far less known figures, this book celebrates the role women have had in shaping photography's vision.