CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/20/2021

A reflection on what it meant, and means, to be 'Black in White America'

Featured image is from Leonard Freed: Black in White America, Reel Art Press’s expanded 2021 collection of the noted Magnum photographer’s 1968 civil rights photo-essay. “I believe that there is a special place in the hearts and minds of most serious documentary photographers who, at some point in their careers, want to deliver at least one photographic tome to the world at large that will make prospective viewers appreciate what they have produced,” fellow-Magnum-photographer Eli Reed writes. “Leonard made a habit of continuously delivering over and over again said tomes. This book has continued to carry the weight of excellence and resides in the brain. He has continued to be everywhere in life and this book is a gift to all who still have need of his brilliance. It informs us of the beauty inside the photographs that he captured and sits deeply inside our consciousness. Thomas Merton’s autobiographical The Seven Story Mountain (published 1948) deals not with what happens to a man, but what happens to his soul. Leonard Freed had plenty of soul to spare and it was exposed to the world through his photography, with that being very evident in this wonderful book, Black in White America. When all is said and done, I am moved to say Amen.”