Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare

“Examines the role photography played in three social movements — anti-lynching, civil rights and black power. . . . by, for example, challenging demeaning representations of black Americans as ignorant or unfit for citizenship.” — The Chronicle of Higher Education

“This is a sophisticated study, well above the useful level for public libraries….It is a compelling work unlike anything else presently offered in the field’s scholarship.” — Tennessee Libraries

“An invaluable study of twentieth-century American visual culture.” — Journal of American History

“[Raiford] convincingly shows that framing the movement through photography was as important and effective as boycotts, marches, and sit-ins in waging the struggle against white supremacy.” — Journal of Southern History

"Raiford’s examination of photography’s participation during three critical moments in African American history is an exemplary and engaging work that advances the conversation of African Americans and the making of America. . . . [Her] work adds a welcomed voice and perspective to the visual dialogue between past and present.” — American Studies Journal

“Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare is a valuable study of how visual culture acquires cognitive truth as politics.” — The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

“This beautifully written text will significantly shape how we can and will understand the visual culture of social movements in the United States. Raiford’s scholarship is excellent.” — Shawn Michelle Smith, author of Photography on the Color Line: W. E. B. Du Bois, Race, and Visual Culture

“Scholars and students of mass media and of black portraiture in popular culture would be well advised to mine this outstanding book’s insights and techniques before proceeding with their own projects. Raiford’s work is at the cutting edge of black cultural studies writing.” — William L. Van Deburg, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“Leigh Raiford’s brilliant and pathbreaking book teaches readers how to look at photographs and how to watch them at work. We learn this from the leaders of the African American freedom struggle itself, as Raiford follows a century of debates about how best to harness photography to the making and remembering of history. Not only is this a vibrant and important story, it is also a vital contemporary analysis, as the space in which all politics takes place increasingly moves toward the 'luminous glare' of mediated images.” — Laura Wexler, Yale University

“This very creative book offers fresh and sometimes startling insights into the process by which, from anti-lynching campaigns at the start of the 20th century through Black Power near its end, African American activists were to use the visual image to reclaim and reframe Black humanity, attacking white supremacy at one of its weakest points. This is an important and eye-opening work.” — Charles M. Payne, University of Chicago