Pleasant Street by Judith Black

A collection of works by American photographer Judith Black.

When the author moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1979 with his four children, his friends asked him if he could get along there. Her honest feelings were that she didn't know what would happen. The family had just moved into a dilapidated apartment on the outskirts of town. The woman at the real estate agent said this was the better one around here. The words "FUCK YOU" were spray-painted on a wooden wall in a small store just down the street from her house. It was a depressing sight for a large hippie family who lived happily together in idyllic New Hampshire. A single mother with almost no income and four small children could not possibly live happily in this town. For the next 20 years, the artist continued to photograph her children's lives as they grew day by day and the relationship between herself and them.

"I soon realized that I could no longer walk around the streets taking pictures. I had little time for myself because I also had to take care of my role as a facilitator, so my dimly lit apartment became my studio.” ― Judith Black

"It's funny that this work took decades to come out, but it was worth the wait. I was 21 when I discovered Black's work, and I was just as passionate about it as I was then. I am blown away, her photography makes the world around me feel more alive and worthy of attention.” —Alec Soth

"Through these intimate and complex images, Black tries to understand the many difficulties she has faced as a working mother, and to document the home that is both a sanctuary and a studio for her work. ”—Financial Times Review

(partial excerpt from distributor 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