What about the photo of James Baldwin holding court at a kitchen table with a copy of his book off to the side?

Barryn: That photo of Baldwin was actually taken by Michelle Agins, one of the longest-running staff photographers at The New York Times—talk about unsung! She has been at The New York Times since 1989 and a photographer since the 1970s. She’s a real pioneer, and we hardly hear anything about her. She’s documented New York City, Chicago, Baltimore, every major city as a journalist. We were really hoping she’d participate in our book, and she said of course. She really wanted to showcase the Baldwin image.

You’ve included photographers from all over the globe, from different cultures who have taken a camera upon themselves. How does this challenge the Western idea of photography?

Fawundu: If we’re talking about the Western gaze—if you look at the history of photography, and people who are non-white, or people of African descent who are being photographed, the tradition was: Let’s use this tool to create a document of who those people are, to tell [Westerners] about them and for people to grade the “subject.” Even back in the late 1800s, people [of African descent] said, “This is a tool that can be used against us, or for us.” You had people—black people in America—who said, “Listen, I’m going to use this tool to show people who I am.” So we can look at photography from the Western perspective, or people who are using it to say this is who we are, to communicate to the masses.

Someone like Frederick Douglass, for example, who used the camera to photograph himself so that people around the country could see what a black man looks like. You don’t have to be in the condition that you are. Success is possible. So what we are doing is following that tradition, which is saying: “This is who we are, [these are] issues we are concerned about.”

How many photographers are included in the book and what did the selection process look like?

Barryn: One hundred and 18 photographers. We made a list, and we just kept adding to the list. Everyone we knew, everyone we heard of, everyone we came in contact with through our travels. And then, when it was time to reach out to people, we just referenced the list.