In “Black is Beautiful,” a legendary Black American photographer and publisher combine with would-be stars of old to bring the perfect conversation piece to your coffee table.
If you knew, you knew.
Starting weekly in the 1950’s and going for nearly 70 years, JET Magazine came to mostly Black American households with a treat tucked between its pages: the “JET Beauty of the Week,” a bikini-clad centerfold combining beauty with brains to showcase the best of Black women nationwide. While these amateur models’ sexy and toned physiques certainly inspired their fair share of not-so-secret admirers, they also satisfied the desires of Black women to see themselves portrayed positively in media before the rise of more diverse outlets and Instagram.
Now, the prolonged efforts of DC-gallery owner Chris Murray serve a healthy portion of these vintage photographs in “Black Is Beautiful: JET Beauties of the Week,” a collection he edited to chronicle this little-known joy of Americana. The book is original, exciting and indispensable testimony to the spectrum available in human civilization’s compulsion to document the female image in art, with darker women too often missing from the conversation.
Nearly two decades in the making and subtitled “The Photographs of LaMonte McLemore,” this 150-page book of over 100 full page color photographs grew from Murray’s friendship with McLemore, a member of the iconic band 5th Dimension. Murray’s Govinda Gallery in D.C. had previously paid tribute with an exhibition for McLemore’s celebrated photography career on the side of his famous R & B catalogue. Now, with the help of Brooklyn-based Powerhouse Books, Murray has expanded the museum exhibition into a travelling print one he calls “remarkable” for the group effort to insure these pictures live past their time.
Murray called on McLemore’s close friend, supermodel Jayne Kennedy, and Mickalene Thomas, one of today’s most important visual artists, to join him in reminding today’s audiences how important this series was. They all penned lively essays to introduce over 100 former beauties shot by McClemore in his signature style of fashion photography, from everyday women in scant swimsuits to power business suits and everything in between. Former JET editor Sylvia Flanagan also recalls the easygoing joy McLemore brought to their collaborations over the years.
In decades marred by unattractive stereotypes of Black women, from the 70’s Blaxploitation era of film and the 90’s “gangsta rap” era of music, JET beauties were refreshing reminders of Black excellence. McLemore’s talents for natural lighting and playful chit chat produced images unconstrained by the artificial propriety most Black media forced on Black women in efforts to overturn demeaning stereotypes of them. Mickalene’s involvement in the project arose from Murray’s admiration of her recognition of JET Beauties in a New York Times interview, where she recalled the series’ influence on her young life and eventual open queer identity. In her essay for “Black is Beautiful,” Mickalene summarizes McLemore’s work as a “radical depiction of the Black female body as both effortlessly beautiful and exceedingly powerful.” As a fashion archive, it features hair and dress styles many remember from past times and shop for today.
JET publisher John H. Johnson insisted each weekly photograph include a brief caption with the current pinup’s hometown, education and professional pursuits. These captions were most impressive to so many Black women and girls like me in my small Midwest industrial town, far from glamour and glitz, where JET was a household staple. Memories abound of sighting the latest JET Beauty of the Week, often clad in risqué attire that made many in my conservative background blush, for feelings of curiosity and pride when the caption revealed she was a medical student or attorney. It was permission, in a necessary way, to see high achievement push beyond the pressure of respectability politics and respect women’s rights to express sexuality.
Treat yourself, satisfy your vintage fashion photography tastes or gift someone who appreciates the female form and order “Black is Beautiful” from Powerhouse Books HERE.
