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Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
D. MICHAEL CHEERS (Nd) & BOB BLACK (1939- ) Two photographs from Songs of My People: African Americans, A Self-Portrait. The first by Cheers, depicting a woman cooking on a hot plate, and the second by Black titled Family and friends join in to help Stevie Black and his sister Crishon ready themselves for the magical entrance into the next stage of their lives, Chicago, Illinois, reproduced on p. 157 of the volume. Silver prints, the images measuring 13 3/8x9 and 10 3/8x13 1/4 inches (34x22.9 and 26.3x33.6 cm.), the sheets slightly larger, the first with Cheers' signature and notations, including the citation p. 175, in pencil and ink, and the second also with what may be Cheers' signature and a numeric notation in pencil on verso. Circa 1990-92
Launched in 1990, Songs of My People was a book, exhibition, and project created and edited by Eric Easter, Dudley M. Brooks, and D. Michael Cheers. It included the work of fifty African American photographers who were commissioned beginning in 1990 to record African American life in order to create a balanced and moving selection of images of everyday life and culture. About 190,000 photographs were created. The exhibition opened at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and traveled in a variety of iterations from 1992-1994. The 1992 book included an introduction by Gordon Parks and essays by Sylvester Monroe, Paula Giddings, Nelson George, and Joyce Ladner.
