Ancestral Dialogues: The Photographs of Albert Chong

by Quincy Troupe, Michael Read (Editor)

64p., text by Quincy Trouple. Mystical, evocative photographs by Asian American photographer whose aesthetic is based on African and West Indian oral tradition.

1 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Quincy Thomas Troupe, Jr. is an American poet, editor, journalist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, California. He is best known as the biographer of Miles Davis, the jazz musician.

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most affecting image in this monograph is a still life with a Jamaican passport. It brought to mind how treasured and personal passports are, while still being bureaucratic and an official statement of personhood.

The images are beautifully crafted, though the symbolism seems a bit stale now (maybe not so much when they were made). They are impeccably crafted still lifes and self-portraits, and the dialogues are personal back-and-forths with Chong's parents and with his multiple cultures of origin.

Skip the forward. Chong is a better writer, says the same things that are in the forward in his own text, but better.