Customer Reviews

Black Male / White Male

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I was first introduced to Rotimi's work by the praises Kobena Mercer gave it in the his book "Welcome to the Jungle." Like many black gay artists, Rotimi's work responds to the fetishizing work in R. Mapplethorpe's "Black Book." However, this photo book is not inspiring. There are much better responses to Mapplethorpe out there than this. (Essex Hemphill's poem in "Looking for Langston" for example.)

There's a long history of gay photographers showing black men and white men in homoerotic poses together. With Rotimi's title, you would think he's doing the same thing. First off, few if not none of the works here show black men and white men together here. Secondly, the book is about 90% black men. He should have titled this book "Black Men with a Few White Guys for Novelty." I really think the title is meant to lure in the white purchaser of his work, rather than truly centering black men as artistic subjects.

Finally, the photos are not that great. One photo could be described as an insult to Mother Africa. Just because black men are being portrayed doesn't make the work transgressive. I was deeply disappointed in this book. I predict than many others will be too.

The photos in this book are indeed mostly of black men. I was pleased with the thoughtful compositions and hadn't really thought that this was Rotini Fani-Kayhoda's response to Mapplethorpe's work. By themselves, the photos are striking and sometimes very simple. As a person who is simplistic enough to simply like photos for what they are, I think that this is a successful collection.