Harlem photographer creating book to celebrate the beauty of black women

Harlem photographer Paul Phillips said he was disturbed by a 'Psychology Today' article asking why Black women were less attractive. He said instead of getting mad, he got busy...

TheGrio Staff

Mar 5, 2012

Harlem photographer Paul Phillips said he was disturbed by a Psychology Today article asking why Black women were less attractive.

But instead of getting mad, he got busy. Phillips is planning “Beauty in Black” a collection of photos displaying diverse expressions of black female beauty. He launched a Kickstarter fundraiser with a goal of raising $10,000 to fund the project. As of Monday afternoon, he had raised $10,919. The final product, he said, will be a coffee table book of 30-40 images “celebrating the beauty and spirit of black women.” Huffington Post reports:

WATCH PHILLIPS’ KICKSTARTER VIDEO DETAILING HIS PLAN FOR ‘BEAUTY IN BLACK’:

Phillips, who studied under legendary photographer Irving Penn, plans to travel around the country in order to capture a diverse sampling of women.

“I want to photograph black women from different places — with all ages, shades, shapes, sizes and hair textures,” Phillips told HuffPost Black Voices.

With all the recent poking and prodding of black women, it’s refreshing to see a positive project come out of all the attention.

It’s particularly powerful to see a man spearheading the effort. Phillips is setting out to defend the honor of black women by dispelling the hurtful and erroneous ideas about them that are often accepted as truth.

“I was raised by a strong black woman and I’m married to a strong black woman. So when I hear discouraging things about black women it disturbs me because I know they are wrong,” Phillips said.

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