Duke University Press Log

Launch "Legendary," 2012 winner of the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography

 

Duke University Press is proud to join the Center for Documentary Studies in celebrating Gerard H. Gaskin and his forthcoming book Legendary: Inside the House Ballroom Scene, the 2012 winner of the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography. The book's color and black-and-white photographs document the world of house balls, underground pageants where gay and transgender men and women, mostly African American and Latino, celebrate their most vibrant, spectacular selves as they “walk,” competing for trophies based on costume, attitude, dance moves, and “realness.”

Join us this Thursday, November 7^th, for Gerard H. Gaskin's artist talk at the Center for Documentary Studies in Durham, North Carolina. The event kicks off at 5:30 and the talk begins at 6:30 with an introduction by Deborah Willis, the renowned curator and photographer who chose Gaskin’s longtime project for the prestigious biennial prize. The event is free and open to the public. For directions and additional information, see the event page. 

 

New York City will host several upcoming Legendary events. On Thursday, November 14^th, Gaskin is speaking as part of The Camera Club of New York's 2013/2014 Lecture Series. Location and ticketing information for this event can be found here.

The Department of Photography & Imaging at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts is hosting Gaskin for a book signing and discussion the evening of November 19^th. Joining Gaskin for the discussion are Frank Roberts, whose essay "The Queer Undercommons" appears in Legendary, and Deborah Willis, chair of the department. See the event page for information on tickets and location.

December 1-31^st, W Hotel presents Legends, a month-long photographic exhibition and philanthropic initiative celebrating New York House Ballroom Legends and style culture. Curated by Gaskin, the exhibit will be open to both guests and locals and will feature photos from Legendary. Legends will kick off with a talk, book signing, and reception on November 20, 2013. More details on the event are still to come. Follow us on Facebook to catch all the latest details.

Remember to check out these and more great Duke Press events on our events calendar.

GERARD H. GASKIN’S AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINO HOUSE AND BALLROOM SERIES WINS FIRST BOOK PRIZE IN PHOTOGRAPHY

The winner of the 2012 Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography is Gerard H. Gaskin for his black-and-white and color photographs that document, as Gaskin writes,

“the performative and aesthetic history of the African American and Latino house and ballroom community.

“The balls are a celebration of black and Latino urban gay life and were born in Harlem out of a need for black and Latino gays to have a safe space to express themselves. Balls are constructed like beauty and talent pageants. The participants work to redefine and critique gender and sexual identity through an extravagant fashion masquerade. Women and men become fluid, interchangeable points of departure and reference, disrupting the notion of a fixed and rigid gender and sexual make-up. All of this happens at night in small halls in cities all over the country. These photographs, taken in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., show us different views of these spaces as they are reflected in the eyes of house and ball members who perform what they wish these cities could be. Balls have come a long way since their beginnings in Harlem; they have influenced popular culture through dance forms such as vogue and gained attention through documentary films like Paris Is Burning. My images try to show a personal and intimate beauty, pride, dignity, courage, and grace that have been painfully challenged by mainstream society.”

Renowned curator, historian, and photographer Deborah Willis judged the competition and chose Gaskin to win the prize. She says that she found Gaskin’s photographs “innovative and spirited,” the images filled with both hope and struggle as “they explore ideas of longing, beauty, and desire.

“Gaskin’s work looks at the notion of transformation as he turns his lens on what it means to be ‘desired,’ and at the same time, what it feels like to be alienated. His photographs are as exciting to look at as they are a means for imagining the lived experiences of the communities he has documented. Gaskin’s role is not one of spectator but of interpreter as he enters this safe space of self-creation. In search for beauty, Gaskin’s photographs open our eyes to an extraordinary community of artists who are performing beauty.”

Duke University Press will publish the prizewinning book in November 2013. See a slideshow of Gaskin's images and visit the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography website to find out more about the prize: firstbookprizephoto.com.

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Cultural Politics

Cultural Politics seeks papers for issue on Affective Landscapes

About the special issue:

Issue editors Christine Berberich, Neil Campbell, and Robert Hudson seek exciting disciplinary and transdisciplinary proposals from scholars working in fields such as cultural studies, literary studies, cultural politics/history, creative writing, film and media studies, area studies, photography, and fine art who are interested in examining the different ways in which human beings respond and relate to, as well as debate and interact with, landscape.

Please submit essays of around 6,000 words or creative pieces combining images and words of around 2,000 words by November 16, 2012.

About Cultural Politics

Moving beyond the boundaries of race, gender, and class, the journal examines the political ramifications of global cultural productions across artistic and academic disciplines. The journal explores precisely what is cultural about politics and what is political about culture by bringing together text and visual art that offer diverse modes of engagement with theory, cultural production, and politics.

To submit a manuscript, please contact Neil Campbell at [email protected]. 
For a list of indexers, visit dukeupress.edu/culturalpolitics.
For a style guide and instructions for authors, please visit dukeupress.edu/culturalpolitics.

Enhanced Version of Iraq | Perspectives Available for iPad

We're very excited to announce that our first enhanced e-book is now available through Apple's iBookstore for the iPad. Photojournalist Benjamin Lowy's Iraq | Perspectives was a natural fit for the medium. The full-color photographs of Iraq during the war look beautiful on the iPad; with the black background of the iPad itself blending with the photos' black frames, viewers will feel as if they are in the humvee with Lowy. We have added audio to eight of the photos. Lowy tells readers where he was when he took the pictures and why he found the shot compelling. And best of all, though the printed book is $39.95, you can buy the iPad version for only $9.99. We hope you'll check it out.

Duke Press Goes to The Daily Show

It's not often that a university press author gets on television at all, let alone onto one of the country's most popular comedy shows. So we were all very excited at Duke University Press when author Ben Lowy, the fifth winner of the Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, told us he might get to be on The Daily Show. Lowy was assigned to take behind-the-scenes photos of the show for Rolling Stone. Jon Stewart found his work as a war photographer fascinating and asked him to come on the show. Once the book, Iraq | Perspectives, came out, it was up to us at the Press to ship copies, follow-up with producers, and make sure that invite became reality.

  The show was booked, logistics were coordinated and at last the big day arrrived. Two of us from the Press, Emily Young, Marketing Director, and Laura Sell, Senior Publicist, attended the taping, along with Alexa Dilworth from the Center for Documentary Studies, several of Ben Lowy's contacts at Getty Images, and his wife, Marvi Lacar. While Ben and Marvi relaxed backstage in the green room, meeting Jon Stewart and checking out the swag, the rest of us picked up our pink "VIP" tickets and went through security. Then we waited in an area outside the studio for what seemed like an hour but was probably half that. An intern reminded us to turn off our phones, spit our our gum, and told us we couldn't take pictures inside the studio. Finally we were ushered into the studio, where the audience coordinators made sure we had front row seats. A comedian warmed the audience up, telling us it was our responsibility to laugh and clap really, really loud, so the home audience wouldn't get bored and "be forced to interact with their families" instead of watching the show. 

At last Jon Stewart came out. He took questions from the audience, made fun of Canada, and threatened to walk out of the studio when someone suggested he run for office. And then it was time for the show! With the audience around us, it felt even funnier than at home. Our attention was split between the live Jon and screens all around the studio that played the video clips. A previously taped piece by John Oliver ran, and during the commercial break Oliver came out, waved to us in the audience, and conferred with Jon about how they would edit the piece for final broadcast. The interview portion is the third act in the show, so by the time Ben came on stage our excitment was high. He looked relaxed, though later he told us he was afraid he might trip on the raised stage as he came out. Each time Jon showed the book we were thrilled, and Alexa Dilworth, the book's editor, even teared up a bit watching it. 

Too soon the show was over and we were ushered out of the studio. Ben met us on the sidewalk outside where we all congratulated him for a great interview. And now, of course, we hope it sells some books! Head over to our website or to your favorite bookstore or online retailer and pick one up. It's gorgeous and makes a great gift. 

 

 

The Perilous Life of a War Photographer

War photographers, usually behind the camera and often unrecognized by those reading the day's news, have unfortunately become front page news themselves over the past several weeks. Two photographers, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondos, were recently killed in Libya while covering the conflict there, and three New York Times photographers were taken into custody in Libya and beaten and terrorized before their ultimate release. Bill Keller covers "The Inner Lives of War Photographers" in this week's New York Times Magazine. Photographer Benjamin Lowy has been covering wars since 2003, when he was embedded with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division in Iraq. He, too, was recently in Libya, but returned safely to his home in Brooklyn a few weeks ago. He posted pictures from there on his Tumblr. While in Iraq, Lowy began a series of photographs he calls Iraq | Perspectives, in which he tries to give the viewer as sense of exactly how American solidiers see Iraq. So the photos are often framed by the window of a humvee or taken through nightvision goggles. Last year Lowy's photos were selected by judge William Eccleston as the winner of the fifth Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography and we are pleased to be publishing them in November 2011. Browse a gallery of photos from the book, and remember the bravery of Lowy and all war photographers as you view them

Behind the Scenes at a Book Printer

A few weeks ago, our Books Design and Production department took a field trip to
one of our book printers, Edwards Brothers in Lillington, North Carolina. Designer Amy Ruth Buchanan was impressed: "During our tour of the plant, it was confirmed for me again that I am in the right business. I found all the paper, the huge printing presses, stacks of signatures waiting for binding, binding equipment, and 
rolls of foil for stamping spines totally thrilling. I really am a book-making geek. We were all especially impressed by the long tenures of the staff there. I think the "new guy" has been there for about seven years. The Director of Customer Service and Prepress has been with the company for 42 years." And Production Assistant Brittany Miller said she "enjoyed seeing the mechanics of printing. All too often we forget the physical labor and technical skills that are involved in the publishing process. We were able to see just how enthusiastic and learned our book-makers are!" Brittany was inspired to take some gorgeous photos of the workings of the factory. We share some here, and you can see the rest on our Facebook page.   

William Eggleston to Judge 2010 First Book Prize in Photography

The Center for Documentary Studies has announced that internationally renowned color photographer William Eggleston will be the next judge for the prestigious CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography.

"William Eggleston brings to the First Book Prize his singular vision on the ordinary, his democratic view of the everyday," said Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies. "We could have no one better to locate the next great American photography book than him, no one more acute in seeing the brilliant fibers of the ever-present."

The biennial Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography competition is open to American photographers of any age who have never published a book-length work and who use their cameras for creative exploration, whether it be of places, people, or communities; of the natural or social world; of beauty at large or the lack of it; of objective or subjective realities. The prize honors work that is visually compelling, that bears witness, and that has integrity of purpose.

The winning photographer receives a grant of $3,000, publication of a book of photography, and inclusion in a website devoted to presenting the work of winners of the prize. The judge also writes the introduction for the book, which is published by Duke University Press in association with CDS Books of the Center for Documentary Studies. Previous winners are Jennette Williams, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Steven B. Smith, and Larry Schwarm.

Submissions for the 2010 competition will be accepted from June 15 to September 8, 2010.

Image: Cover of William Eggleston's 2 1/4, Twin Palms Publishers, 2008

Daylight Podcast with Jennette Williams

 The folks over at Daylight Magazine have made a terrific podcast with photographer Jennette Williams, whose stunning platinum prints of women bathers in Budapest and Istanbul won the fourth Center for Documentary Studies / Honickman First Book Prize in Photography. Williams says her goal was to capture women "living inside rather than fighting against their bodies." Her book The Bathers will be launched here at Duke tomorrow, with an artist's talk at Perkins Library. 

Robert Frank Retrospective Opens at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A fiftieth-anniversary exhibition of Robert Frank's celebrated The Americans opened this week at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Reviewing the exhibition in the New York Times, Holland Cotter finds it still relevant today. "In the nominally post-racial Obama era, its political urgencies feel less immediate than they once did, but also prophetic. Its mournful tenderness, without being sentimental, seems deeper than ever." Robert Frank served as the judge for the third annual Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography. He chose Danny Wilcox Frazier as the winner and Duke Press was proud to publish Driftless: Photographs from Iowa in conjunction with CDS Books. Robert Frank wrote a foreword for the book, praising Frazier's "passionate photographs without sentimentality. His work reaches out: let me tell your story, it is important. Frazier’s work will survive—his book will be the foundation for more to come. . . ."