Brooklyn photographer Jon Henry’s photo book “Stranger Fruit” has been shortlisted for “Photography Book of the Year” by the British Kraszna-Krausz Foundation.
Photo by Ximena Del Cerro.
Brooklyn-based photographer Jon Henry has spent the last nine years in the making of his project “Stranger Fruit,” a book with photos of Black mothers from every state in the country, who worry about the safety of their sons in the hands of the police.
After his work traveled to galleries and shows in over ten states and three countries, The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation, the U.K.’s leading prize for original photography, shortlisted Henry’s publication among the Best Photography Book of the Year. The foundation says it recognizes creativity and rigor within the publishing industry, selecting books for their content’s historical and cultural quality and presentation. If he wins, Henry will be awarded £5,000 and major exposure internationally.
To create “Stranger Fruit,” Henry reached out to families in each state, and in specific Black neighborhoods, to pose them as if mourning their sons, calling out police violence that has historically resulted in the killing of thousands of young Black men and has left terrified mothers and incomplete families.
Henry took inspiration from Michelangelo’s famous sculpture, Pietà, in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, which features Mary holding her dead son, Jesus in her lap. He photographed Black mothers standing alone or accompanied by their youngest children, holding their sons’ bodies in front of landmarks or landscapes, sometimes sitting alone at home seemingly mourning, and used texts written by them that expressed their worry.
“The mothers in the photographs have not lost their sons, but understand the reality, that this could happen to their family,” Henry wrote in the book’s introduction. “The mother is also photographed in isolation, reflecting on the absence. When…
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