Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass wins the Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award

Isaac Julien's book Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass (Co-published by DelMonico Books; Isaac Julien Studio; MAG Rochester; Tang Museum) won the Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award.

Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass is a visual and literary meditation that juxtaposes Isaac Julien’s artworks with archival images of Frederick Douglass and essays that consider his enduring legacy. This sumptuously illustrated artist’s book and reader documents Lessons of the Hour (2019), the ten-screen film installation, and a series of related photographic artworks by the internationally acclaimed artist Isaac Julien, that honour the public and private life of one the most visionary figures in U.S. history: Frederick Douglass. The visionary African American orator, philosopher, intellectual, and self-liberated freedom-fighter was born into slavery in Maryland and went on to develop a remarkable aesthetic theory through his thinking and writing on abolitionism and Black self-representation by using the apparatus of photography. Isaac Julien’s, Lessons of the Hour — Frederick Douglass takes the reader on the journey through Douglass; life and thinking, and is a vital consideration of his political and aesthetic legacy.

Both the winning and shortlisted titles have been chosen as exemplary demonstrations of originality and excellence in the fields of moving image and photography book publishing. The longlisted books in the running for the 2023 Photography and Moving Image Book Awards address wide-ranging themes including sleep, grief, identity, race, community, and the environment. The longlisted titles were exhibited at Photo London in the publishing section from 11-14 May.