TRUE COLORS (OR, AFFIRMATIONS IN A CRISIS)
Published by Aperture Foundation
True Colors (or, Affirmations in a Crisis) is a chronicle of survival by trailblazing artist Zora J Murff.
Murff constructs a manual for coming to terms with the historical and contemporary realities of America’s divisive structures of privilege and caste. Since leaving social work to pursue photography over a decade ago, Murff’s work has consistently grappled with the complicit entanglement of the medium in the histories of spectacle, commodification, and race, often contextualizing his own photographs with found and appropriated images and commissioned texts. True Colors continues that work, expanding to address the act of remembering and the politics of self, which Murff identifies as “the duality of Black patriotism and the challenges of finding belonging in places not made for me—of creating an affirmation in a moment of crisis as I learn to remake myself in my own image.” Nuanced, challenging, and inspiring, True Colors (or, Affirmations in a Crisis) is a must-have monograph by a rising and standout artist.
True Colors is the result of the inaugural Next Step Award, a partnership between Aperture and Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York, with the generous support of 7G Foundation. An exhibition of the work opened at Baxter St in New York in November 2021.
Photographs by Zora J Murff. Contributions by Tay Butler, Widline Cadet, Nick Drain, Bill Gaskins, Nick Norman, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Legacy Russell, Jay Simple, Aaron Turner, Terence Washington, and Rana Young. Designed by WORK/PLAY (Dani and Kevin McCoy).
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of pages: 220
Number of images: 200
Publication date: March 2022
Measurements: 10 x 12 inches
ISBN: 9781597115179
PLAYLIST AVAILABLE HERE
TAKE IT FROM HERE
Curated and Organized by Rana Young and Zora J Murff
Designed, Printed, and Assembled by Travis Shaffer
Published by THERE, THERE NOW
TAKE IT FROM HERE is an artist's book/exhibition catalog featuring artworks by ten emerging photographers who use the camera as a multifaceted site of imagination, play, and self-exploration. Considering photography’s sordid relationship with the politics of representation, the selected artists collectively highlight new freedoms and visual possibilities of self-expression alive within the medium.
The exhibition, curated by Zora J Murff and Rana Young, opened on Aug. 6th at Filter Photo in Chicago, IL.
Participating Photographers:
Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.
Widline Cadet
Jasmine Clark
Paul Guilmoth
Kathryn Harrison
Elizabeth Hibbard
Tommy Kha
Alec Kaus
Nadiya Nacorda
Lindley Warren Mickunas
Format: Paperback / softback
Risograph printed
Number of pages: 32
Measurements: 10 x 12.5 inches
AT NO POINT IN BETWEEN
by Zora J Murff, Terence Washington, and Lisa Riordan Seville
Published by Dais Books, 2019
7.25 x 9 inches, 100 pages with insert, 160gsm matte stock with site specific varnish, painted edge and stamped hardcover.
Hardcover Edition of 155 / 5 APs — SOLD OUT
Special Edition of 10 / 5 APs — SOLD OUT
LOST: OMAHA
by Zora J Murff
Published by Kris Graves Projects, 2018
6.5 x 8 inches, perfect-bound softcover, 48 pages.
First Edition of 125 — SOLD OUT
First Edition, Second Printing of 100 — SOLD OUT
CORRECTIONS
by Zora J Murff
Foreword by Pete Brook, Founder of Prison Photography
Published by Aint-Bad Editions, Savannah, 2015
9.75 x 7.75 inches. 80 pages. Edition of 450.