From Kahran and Regis Bethencourt, the dynamite husband and wife duo behind CreativeSoul Photography, comes GLORY, a photography book that shatters the conventional standards of beauty for Black children.
Featuring a foreword by Amanda Seales
With stunning images of natural hair and gorgeous, inventive visual storytelling, GLORY puts Black beauty front and center with more than 100 breathtaking photographs and a collection of powerful essays about the children. At its heart, it is a recognition and celebration of the versatility and innate beauty of black hair, and black beauty. The glorious coffee-table book pays homage to the story of our royal past, celebrates the glory of the here and now, and even dares to forecast the future.
It brings to life past, present, and future visions of black culture and showcases the power and beauty of recognizing and celebrating oneself. Beauty as an expression of who you are is power. When we define our own standards of beauty, we take back that power. GLORY encourages children around the world to feel that power and harness it.
MY REVIEW
Growing up in a black home there weren't many books I came across as a kid that represented me. Over the last few years I've noticed more and more people of colour on covers of books and who are the main characters in stories and it just warms my heart to hear that because people of colour need to feel represented too. I was sent an advance copy of Glory earlier this year and was also gifted a hard copy once it was released. I absolutely loved my advance copy, but when that hard copy came, I squealed. You guys this book is absolutely stunning! From start to end, there are so many beautiful pictures representing so much black beauty and I am here for it.
Being a mixed-race family and having kids that are biracial, my goal is to have books in our home library that represent any and every person in the world, especially books that help my kids feel represented and heard. I would have loved to have Glory on my bookshelf as a kid to look through and read stories of other kids that look like me.
Glory is such a beautiful book from start to finish and I currently have this book on my coffee table so that my kids can reach for it whenever they are in our family room and look through it. I can't wait for the day when we get to have family and friends over again to visit and share my love for this book in person with them because I've shared with so many family and friends over videochat any chance I got. It's truly a book of beauty and each picture just makes me smile.
No matter what race you are, Glory is definitely a book you want on your coffee table. The pictures alone will have you in awe and the added stories of some of the kids are a bonus and make this book even better. There are pictures of black kids from all over the world, from California to Ghana, to South Africa, there is so much representation in this book. This would be a perfect gift to give someone this holiday season who loves photography and who would love to learn a bit more about the different black cultures around the world.
For more information about Glory and where to purchase this book, be sure to head to Raincoast Books.
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