Timeless: Photographs by Kamoinge

Recognized by the New York Times as one of the Best Photography Books. Immerse yourself in the visual stream created over the first 50 years by Kamoinge, a pioneering photographic collective founded in 1963 in New York City, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

Kamoinge’s members include many of the nation’s most accomplished photographers. This is the first comprehensive book of the work of Kamoinge’s 30 members, from the founding of the Kamoinge Workshop in 1963 to 2014. After more than 5 decades of racist barriers to the recognition of Kamoinge by major museums, the Kamoinge Workshop is finally being celebrated by the art world and has assumed its rightful place as a major force in the history of American photography, as the longest standing photographic collective.

The major traveling exhibition Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop launched in 2020 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Several Kamoinge original members were featured in the major 2017-2020 international exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, first created at the Tate Modern in London then traveling to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Broad Museum, the de Young Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

In this stunning compendium, over 280 photographs are interspersed with insights and thoughts from Kamoinge’s members and other renowned authors. Taken in New York City, West Africa, Guyana, and suburban America, the photos include abstracts; daily moments of men, women and children; landscapes; and portraits of Miles Davis, Biggie Smalls, a young Ntozake Shange, and many other visionary citizens.

Timeless: Photographs by Kamoinge was recognized by the New York Times as one of the Best Photography Books of 2015.