Nothing Personal

Nothing Personal is a collaborative book between James Baldwin and Richard Avedon. It combines Avedon’s photos surrounding race and politics with four short essays/stories by Baldwin. Baldwin’s essays read more like short stories and display the beautiful prose while still being political and making statements about society. To share one quote: “One day, perhaps, unimaginable generations hence, we will evolve into the knowledge that human beings are more important than real estate and will permit this knowledge to become the ruling principle of our lives.” Per usual, Baldwin has the ability to be timeless. The current political climate of protest receives a lot of pushback based on the idea that real estate is more valuable than people. Looters and vandals are synonymous with protesters in oppositional media outlets. This book shows so well that this is not a passing problem. It has been around since (and before) 1964 when this book was made (mine is the 2017 reissue with the accompanying “making of” book).

Allen Ginsburg

William Casby, Born into Slavery

Brother Malcolm X

Baldwin and Avedon