Available Light: Exile in Mexico

Description

The quieter Griffin — before the legend. Before Black Like Me made him famous, John Howard Griffin was a young writer in exile. Available Light: Exile in Mexico gathers the photographs and journals he made during the years he lived in Mexico with his young family — work that remained largely unseen until this 2008 volume, introduced by Robert Bonazzi.

Griffin took up photography during those Mexican years, and the images are extraordinary: intimate portraits of family and friends, Mexican neighbors, street life and landscapes, all shot in the available light of the title. Alongside them, unpublished portions of his journals reveal a writer finding his voice far from home.

This is a more personal Griffin than the civil-rights crusader of legend — a husband, a father, an artist learning to see. Open it for the photographs; stay for the voice of a writer becoming himself.

Before Black Like Me made him famous, John Howard Griffin was a young writer in exile. Available Light: Exile in Mexico gathers the photographs and journals he made during the years he lived in Mexico with his young family and his aging parents — work that remained largely unseen until this volume, published in 2008 with an introduction by Robert Bonazzi.
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nGriffin took up photography during those Mexican years, and the images are extraordinary: intimate portraits of family and friends, Mexican neighbors, street life and landscapes, all shot in the available light of the title. Alongside them, unpublished portions of his journals reveal a writer finding his voice far from home.
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nThis is a quieter, more personal Griffin than the civil-rights crusader of legend — a husband, a father, an artist learning to see. For photography lovers and literary readers alike, it is a rare and moving discovery. Open it for the photographs; stay for the voice of a writer becoming himself.
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