Joan Almond: The Past In The Present

by Roberto Tejada

Whether in the play of shadows cast on a rock by drying leaves, or in the strength of a woman's crossed forearms covered in marriage tattoos, Joan Almond's photographs maintain an exceptional sobriety of form and treatment. Shot in Morocco, Algeria, India, and Jerusalem, her photographic images focus on family traditions still strong in North Africa and the Middle East but long lost in her native America. Traveling to and working in villages and homes where few photographers have tread, Almond manages to show human beings with remarkable dignity and resilience, despite their sometimes impoverished personal circumstances. This first monograph of Almond's work is printed in tritone to replicate the platinum printing process so integral to the viewing of her photographs.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

An art historian, curator, and editor specializing in Latino and Latin American art, Roberto Tejada earned a BA in comparative literature from New York University and a PhD in interdisciplinary media studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo. From 1987 to 1997 Tejada lived in Mexico City, where he served on the editorial board of the magazine Vuelta and was executive editor of Artes de México. He founded and co-edits the journal Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas. A former professor at the University of California at San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin, and Southern Methodist University, Tejada was appointed the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Houston in 2014.