Captioning the Archives: A Conversation in Photographs and Texts

Of the Diaspora

by Lester Sloan (Photographer), Aisha Sabatini Sloan (Contributor), Erica Vital-Lazare (Editor)

Lester Sloan began his photography career as cameraman for the CBS affiliate in Detroit, then worked as a staff photographer in Los Angeles for Newsweek magazine for twenty-five years. His daughter, noted essayist Aisha Sabatini Sloan, writes about race and current events, often coupled with analysis of art, film, and pop culture. In this father-daughter collaboration, Lester opened his archive of street photography, portraits, and news photos, and Aisha interviewed him, creating rich, probing, dialogue-based captions for more than one hundred photographs. Lester's images encompass celebrity portraits, key news events like Pope John Paul's visit to Mexico, Black cultural life in Europe, and, with astonishing emotion, the everyday lives of Black folk in Los Angeles and Detroit.

About Of the Diaspora:

McSweeney's Of the Diaspora is a series of previously published works in Black literature whose themes, settings, characterizations, and conflicts evoke an experience, language, imagery and power born of the Middle Passage and the particular aesthetic which connects African-derived peoples to a shared artistic and ancestral past. Wesley Brown's Tragic Magic, the first novel in the series, was originally published in 1978 and championed by Toni Morrison during her tenure as an editor at Random House. This Of the Diaspora edition features a new introduction written by Brown for the series. Tragic Magic will be followed by Paule Marshall's novel of a Harlem widow claiming new life. Praisesong for the Widow was originally published in 1983 and was a recipient of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. The series is edited by writer Erica Vital-Lazare, a professor of creative writing and Marginalized Voices in literature at the College of Southern Nevada. Published in collectible hardcover editions with original cover art by Sunra Thompson, the first three works hail from Black American voices defined by what Amiri Baraka described as strong feeling "getting into new blues, from the old ones." Of the Diaspora-North America will be followed by series from the diasporic communities of Europe, the Caribbean and Brazil.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 16, 2021

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a treasure for photographers. It also would be of great interest to historians, pop-culturists, and certainly anyone interested in the African-American experience. As a photographer, I am really taken by the way each photograph is placed into context. Actually, each photo is placed in several contexts: the immediate place, time, and situation; the context of how Sloan came to the exact moment the photo was taken; the context of that moment, that place, those people in relation to other moments and other places, sometimes separated by years and continents. I wrote a lot of little notes to myself while reading this. It adds to my understanding of what photography is. Aisha Sabatini Sloan, his daughter and a well-known and respected writer, drives the direction of the narratives. Her short essays relate the photos and the discussions to broader ideas. A reader could approach this as a quick, interesting read. As a Detroiter, that was certainly a part of my experience reading it. But if approached as I think the book was intended, it goes very deep, indeed.

[Chris Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, I really wanted this to be better. I love the concept-- father is a Detroit-born successful photojournalist, daughter is a Detroit-raised writer-- and she writes about conversations she had with her father about photos he has taken. Seems charming, informative, and visually appealing. Alas, most of the stories were not very interesting, and Aisha Sloan chose to record in writing pretty much exactly how their casual conversation went, which often lacked direction and was filled with the clunky way we all talk instead of write. Even worse, the photos were mostly pretty standard on-location portraits.

It is impressive how many people Lester Sloan knows, and how much he got to travel in his career. The best story may be about how his Detroit roots allowed him to photograph LA gang members.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've grown to enjoy photography as an art form more and more over the years. However, my personal experience of it has usally been bifurcated between seeing select (so very select) photos in museums vs. seeing the the everyday photos taken by my family and friends (which can be lovely even if presented in very less formal ways). This book fantasically marries the two together. Pairing the images with the conversational text felt so warm and inviting, like I was invited to partake in the personal stories swirling around the beautiful photos. And also having a parent of a certain age, I appreciated the conversational back and forth even more.

A fantastic work I feel so lucky to have experienced.

4.5 stars

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like a book that makes me notice something new, and few things do it better than someone talking about their craft. The just-on-assignment context of Lester Sloan’s photos, whether capturing celebrities or a young girl on her front steps, worked for me. The discussions between the Sloans made the book more like listening in than really reading. The essays from Aisha Sloan anchored the book well (“Black Hollywood” was my favorite), even if the tonal shift made it sort of like two books instead of one.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are amazing photos of famous (and not so famous) people and places. But to hear Lester’s voice explaining what’s going on behind the lens, as he alternates between funny, terrible, and sad stories makes it that much more meaningful. It’s also much more than just being “interviewed” by his daughter, Aisha. It’s like being in on an intimate conversation of a father sharing memories with his daughter. Aisha’s longer essays throughout the book are beautifully written to bring a deeper insight into her father and his relationships with some of the people and places he photographed.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very randomly picked this book up, you can make the read as fast as you want or you might end up lingering on random pages unexpectedly. The interview setup between father and daughter feels intimate, like you’re privy to conversation you’d never otherwise get. It occasionally reminds me of the Quincy Jones NY Mag article, just so much random insight/gossip about the widest range of people. The photo of David Geffen is titled Cher’s Manager!!!

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photos were amazing! Reading definitely felt like you were a fly on the wall overhearing a conversation between father and daughter. Embarrassed that I did not know Lester Sloan's name before this.

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. The tenderness and care between father and daughter was palpable, even/especially in moments of tension and differing interpretations of events and images. This is going to stay with me for a while as a beautiful thinking-through of living history and family.