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Flava: Wedge Curatorial Projects 1997-2007 Edited by Elizabeth Harney Toronto: Wedge Curatorial Projects, 2008. 142 pp., 50 color and 80 b&w photos, index. $60 cloth.
reviewed by Julia Schlosser
Flava: Wedge Curatorial Projects (1997-2007) presents a collection of photographic images exploring issues related to black identity and culture. The photographs, taken in Diaspora communities around the globe, range from the post-World War I era to the present day. The book is introduced by Deborah Willis, leading historian of African American photography, and edited by Elizabeth Harney. It celebrates the vision of Dr. Kenneth Montague, director of Wedge Curatorial Projects, a Toronto-based photographic gallery whose curatorial mission is "dedicated to photo-based work exploring black identity" (jacket notes). Flava - an expression used by photographer Jamel Shabazz, whose street images of 1980s New York hip-hop culture are featured prominently in the book - comes from the African American lexicon and refers to the essential element or flavor found in relevant cultural expression (p. 4). The term also refers to Montague's efforts to introduce to the Toronto art community and- with the publication of this bookthe larger international art scene, issues related to black photographic expression.
The book is divided into two sections. The first section reprises eight photographic exhibitions mounted by Wedge Curatorial Projects during its ten-year history. Selections of photographic images originally featured in the shows are included along with catalog essays by Willis, Ruth Kerkham Simbao, Warren Crichlow, and P.L.E. Idahosa, among others. James VanDerZee, a leading portrait photographer during the Harlem Renaissance, opens the book.
VanDerZee's imagery sets the tone for this photographic collection, optimistic portrait and...