West, Edward 1949–

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West, Edward 1949–

PERSONAL: Born 1949, in New York, NY; married; wife's name, Kate. Education: Lake Forest College, B.A., 1971; Rochester Institute of Technology, M.F.A., 1973.

ADDRESSES: Home—1025 Baldwin, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. Office—University of Michigan, School of Art and Design, 2029 Art and Architecture, Ann Arbor, MI 42069. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Educator and photographer. School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL, assistant professor, 1973–80; University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 1981–89; University of Michigan School of Art and Design, Ann Arbor, professor and director of international program, 1990–. Exhibitions: Solo exhibitions include Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa, 1999; and University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 2000. Group exhibits include Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 2000; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, and 2001; Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI, 2001. Works included in private collections at Art Institute of Chicago; South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Polaroid Corporation, Boston, MA; and Friends of Photography, Carmel, CA.

AWARDS, HONORS: National Endowment for the Arts award for Services to the Field, 1980; named national teaching fellow, 1990; King, Chavez, Parks Award of Recognition, 1992; Johnson Controls grant, 2000.

WRITINGS:

Casting Shadows: Images from a New South Africa: Photographs, University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor, MI), 2001.

Photographs also featured in Photographers Encyclopedia International (CD-ROM), Switzerland, 1997.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Ongoing visual research on issues of race and representation in South Africa, Cuba, and the People's Republic of China, as well as in home communities.

SIDELIGHTS: Edward West began his photography career immediately after graduating from high school. According to the University of Michigan School of Art and Design Web site, West's "desire is always to enter the mental space of those being imaged—to demonstrate the gravity of how thought informs gesture," and much of his work focuses on "issues of race and representation."

In his book-length collection of photographs, Casting Shadows: Images from a New South Africa: Photographs, West presents photos taken while he traveled in South Africa between 1997 and 2000. The photos concentrate on blacks living in various South African communities. The subjects, many of whom were still living in poverty following the end of apartheid, are photographed in shadows. The book also includes essays by Mongane Wally Serote, Lemuel Johnson, and Athol Fugard, as well as an interview with West conducted by Leslie King-Hammond.

Writing in Library Journal, Edward K. Owusu-Ansah commented that West's "photographic technique and the quality of the images are exceptional." Nevertheless, the reviewer felt that "the volume's conceptual emptiness induces unease." In a review of Casting Shadows for Booklist, Ray Olson referred to West's decision to photograph most of his subjects in shadows as looking "beyond his subjects' poverty to their existential situation as a people emerging from the shadow of their country's former white supremacist regime, under which they were … shadows of the 'real' … white … people." Black Issues Book Review contributor Gregory A. Woods commented that "West manages to capture the subtle interplay of inferences and avoids cliché or trite 'message' photography." He went on to note, "Each page is like a slice of actual life with the volume turned down."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, September-October, 2001, Gregory A. Woods, review of Casting Shadows: Images from a New South Africa: Photographs, p. 39.

Booklist, March 15, 2002, Ray Olson, review of Casting Shadows, p. 1200.

Library Journal, March 15, 2002, Edward K. Owusu-Ansah, review of Casting Shadows, p. 77.