Pleasant Street by Judith Black

A collection of works by American photographer Judith Black.

When the artist moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1979 with her four children, her friends asked her if she thought they would make it there. She honestly didn't know what to expect. The family had just moved into a rundown apartment in a part of town. The real estate agent said it was one of the better apartments in the area. Just down the road from their house, the wooden wall of a small store had the word "FUCK YOU" scrawled in spray paint. It was a depressing sight for the family, who had been living happily with a large hippie family in idyllic New Hampshire. As a single mother with almost no income and four small children, it was hard to imagine that she could live happily in the town. For the next 20 years, the artist continued to photograph her children's lives as they grew up and her relationship with them.

"I quickly realized that I couldn't just walk around the streets of my city taking pictures. Working as an assistant at MIT, taking classes, and being a mother meant I had very little free time. My dark apartment became my studio." Judith Black

"It's crazy that it took decades for this work to come out, but it has been worth the wait. I discovered Braque's work when I was 21 and I am still deeply moved by it now. Her photographs make the ordinary world around me feel more alive and remarkable." - Alec Soth

"Through these intimate and complex images, Black seeks to make sense of the challenges she experienced as a working mother and to document her home as both a sanctuary and a creative studio." - Financial Times Review

(Excerpt from distributor's commentary)

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Title: Pleasant Street
Artist: Judith Black
STANLEY/BARKER, 2020
Hardcover, 250 x 250 mm
120 pages
First edition
¥7,400 + tax