In Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, author Deborah Willis compiles images of iconic black Americans like Josephine Baker and Michelle Obama, providing a photographic history of beauty, pride and power.
Featuring the work of more than 100 photographers, Willis presents a compilation of the vast array of beauty types in American culture - from the high school prom queen to modern pop stars.
The images she chose illustrate the different ethnic skin types, hair textures and figures that are included in the wide definition of what is beautiful.
In a New York Times review of the book, writer Jennifer Baszille said the collection subtly chronicles the struggles of and the progress made by African Americans.
"If a single thread unifies the images in this amazing collection, it is the subjects’ agency in the conception and presentation of their own beauty, which is itself a radical departure from the more familiar objectification of African-Americans in the nation’s collective visual memory," wrote Baszille.
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