“One is the idea of leisure time and the pathway to luxury as a black American. The ability to engage with the mundane and to have leisure time, as a black human being, is luxurious and radical to envision. I made a film called Idyllic Space, which is very much about that. It has hypnotic scenes of young black men in suburbia, jump roping and hula hooping. The tradition I want to leave behind is to make all of that second nature.” -Antwaun Sargent, the critic, curator and author of The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion, a new book that showcases the work of emerging and established black photographers who are pushing the fashion industry towards an inclusive future.

What does your coffee table book say about you?

A few months ago I watched Micheala Coel deliver an unforgettable Emmy acceptance speech in which she dared us all to “not be afraid to disappear… And see what comes to you in the silence.” A lot has come to me in the silence since my social media journey grew legs back in 2010. I’d just begun my senior year at Spelman and the days of Facebook pokes and organizing a top 8 on MySpace had now become a distant memory in the wake of an emerging social landscape known today as Instagram. I struggled a bit at first, inventing and reinventing myself in those little square boxes in an attempt to decide which story I wanted to present to the world. During a post-grad gap year and self described emboldened quest to “find myself,” I stumbled upon a Condé Nast magazine that offered a simple reminder: Life is oftentimes much more about the journey than the destination.

Source: The Whitney Museum