photo_talks: What Moves You?
Amani Willett
Amani Willett presents his latest book A Parallel Road published by Overlapse Books (London). A romantic concept of “the road” has been embraced in American popular culture since the mid-20th century. Absent from this cumulative portrait is the Black American experience of the road which is often associated with fear, violence and death rather than freedom. Mixing recent portraits and landscapes, digital screenshots and archival material—including pictures from Willett’s own family archive—A Parallel Road pays homage to The Green Book, a traveler’s guide for Black Americans first published in 1936, and sheds light on an experience of the road that has long been overlooked.
This nuanced and multi-layered work explores themes of history, racism, violence and Black identity in the United States, reflecting on the nation’s past and present while encouraging inclusivity and dialogue surrounding a complex and integral American story.
Tiffany Jones, editor and publisher of Overlapse Books (London), leads the conversation and the Q&A after the presentation.
Amani Willett is a photographic artist who works at the intersection of identity, race, memory, and the social environment. Pushing the possibilities of narrative and images, his three monographs have been published to widespread critical acclaim. A 2021 Aperture Portfolio Award Finalist, Amani’s work was recently featured in American Geography (SF Moma/Radius Books) and resides in the permanent collections of the Tate Modern, the Library of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Sir Elton John Photography Collection, among others.
amaniwillett.com
Tiffany Jones is founding publisher of Overlapse, a London-based imprint producing recognizable and critically-acclaimed photography books in collaboration with international artists. Overlapse first published Amani’s work The Disappearance of Joseph Plummer in 2017, and they came together again in 2020 to make A Parallel Road. With 30+ years dedicated to arts publishing and photojournalism, Tiffany is an editor, designer, researcher, and educator with international programs and institutions. She has juried for the Fiebre Photobook Dummy Award (Spain), Breadfield Dummy Award (Sweden) and Photolucida Critical Mass (USA). She has an MA in publishing from Oxford Brookes University researching the photobooks market, and previously studied photojournalism in Canada. Overlapse is active at book fairs throughout Europe and North America with books distributed globally. Other notable publications include You can call me Nana by Will Harris (shortlisted, 2021 Paris-Aperture First Photobook Award) and Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals by Mandy Barker (nominated, 2018 Deutsche Börse Foundation Prize).
