A Parallel Road
Amani Willett
This multi-layered work explores the Black experience of driving in America over the past 85 years. By picturing how it has too often been marked by fear, violence and death, A Parallel Road challenges representations of the American ideal of the road trip that have long dominated our view through artistic and literary media. Referencing the historical Negro Motorist Green Book, and layering archival and new images, it examines the question of how long the road will continue to be a site of violence and oppression for Black people in American society.
FIRST EDITION Softcover, 12.5 x 17 cm portrait, 112 pages
Hand-sewn single signature binding with buckram tape, uncut fore edge, printed wrapper
85 new photographs, archival images and digital screenshots
Publication November 2020 | ISBN: 9781999446840
Purchase HERE
“A poignant dance between the celebratory and uplifting and the sinister.” – Dolly Meieran, 10×10 Photobooks
“The book brings readers on a voyage that begins as personal and progresses into a larger political, social and media-related journey.” – Kristen Gresh, Senior Curator of Photographs at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Willett weaves a spellbinding tapestry that is alternately tender, inspiring, and horrifying.” – Sara Rosen, Huck magazine
“Equal parts enlightening and enraging, Willett intrigues with portraits by turns delightful, reflective and devastating of a people who were forced into traveling a parallel road simply to partake in the pleasures afforded their white counterparts.” – Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, What Will You Remember
“Small, intense and very touching, mixing archival and personal images, a story that had to be told.” – Gabriela Cendoya, Collector
“So important, timely and relevant.” – Anne McNeill, Director & Curator Impressions Gallery, Bradford
Selected Recognition
Top 10 Photobooks of 2020, 1000 Words Magazine
Best Photography Books of 2020 – Elizabeth Avedon, Curator + Designer
Photo-eye Favorite Photobooks of 2020 – Honourable mention by Jon Feinstein, curator
Favorite Photobooks of 2020 – Elin Spring & Susanne Révy, What Will You Remember
5 Photobooks of 2020 by Olmo Gonzalez, Co-director of Fiebre Photobook Festival
Polycopies 2020 Recommended Book
Favourite Photobooks of 2020 – Gabriela Cendoya
Curated selection Fiebre Photobook Festival 2020 – Gabriela Cendoya, Collector
Curated selection Fiebre Photobook Festival 2020 – Tim Clark, Editor in Chief at 1000 Words, writer, curator and lecturer
Curated selection Fiebre Photobook Festival 2020 – Olga Yatskevich, 10×10 Photobooks Cofounder
Curated selection Fiebre Photobook Festival 2020 – Gonzalo Golpe, Editor & Designer
Bestseller Photoeye Bookstore, January 2021
Bestseller, Fiebre Fest 2020 Bookmarket
A Parallel Road is held in the following collections:
The British Library (UK)
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ingalls Library (OH, USA)
École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (Arles, FR)
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Eugene L Freel Library (USA)
MCLA Freel Library (MA, USA)
Museum of Modern Art – MOMA (NY, USA)
Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA, USA)
Pickler Memorial Library, Truman State University (MO, USA)
Rhode Island School of Design Library (USA)
The Saxon State Library – State and University Library, Dresden (DE)
SUNY Sojourner Truth Library (NY, USA)
