Authors and historians consider coffee table books an intriguing proposition.
Many describe the hard-cover oversized publications designed for a quick pick up from a piece of furniture in an area where a host entertains guests as an “easy read” but insist their pictorial content to be distinct from studious prose. Stated simply, they are an invaluable source of information and enjoyment without being superficial.
Coffee table books have been around for centuries in England and Europe. Michel de Montaigne hinted at the genre’s as far back as 1580 when he complained in Upon Some Verses Of Virgil that he was “vexed that my essays only serve the ladies for a common movable, a book to lay in the parlor window.”
Dr Calvin Holder, a Barbadian history professor at Staten Island College of the City University of New York (CUNY), believes such books have far more value that just being displayed in a window. They can be very important and can tell the social history of a people with their mixture of pictures and words.
That’s particularly true, he says of Clyde Jones’ book The Man And His Camera, the successor to a valuable publication Jones first published at the turn of the 21st century.
“The book chronicles the social life of Barbadians in Barbados and North America,” said Holder, a Harvard University-trained scholar who has taught tens of thousands of CUNY students.
“It gives a visual image of Barbadian leaders and of regular Barbadians in all aspects of Barbadian life in New York and at home. This has been done over a period of 50 years. I don’t know of a similar work that has achieved this signature achievement.”
What distinguishes the book from other publications is the heavy use of the camera and Jones’ professional skill that culminate in a single place, a history of Barbadians over a half century.
“This is a personal journey by a Barbadian photographer, giving us a sense of the essence of Barbadian life,” insisted Holder.
The 184-page book which was launched first in Barbados and later at the Barbados government offices in New York has more than 200 images that capture key events in Barbados’ history, from independence in 1966 ushered in by Errol Barrow, the country’s first Prime Minister to the era of Sir Elliott Belgrave, the latest native Governor-General.
The snapshots of visits of the country’s major political, religious, cultural and business leaders to North America as well as Bajan immigrant figures who belong to almost 100 social services organization paint a picture of a diaspora that’s lively and eager to raise and salute the Barbados flag. In essence, it underscores their interest and love of the “rock”, as they often call their birthplace.
“The camera is the means by which I convey a meaning, a mood or a sensation to others,” said Jones in a description of his work and what makes him tick. “I like to think of my efforts as primarily a form of communication.”
Randy Brathwaite, president of the Council of Barbadian Organizations (CBO) of New York, the umbrella body that brings together more than a dozen associations, said: “It allows people to see themselves in their birthplace and in their adopted home in a positive fashion, devoid of much of the turbulence of everyday life in the metropolis”.
Helen Walker, a CBO official, called the publication a “good reference book” that “walks us through the memory lane, capturing people enjoying moments in the life of Barbados.”
In some respects, the book takes on the role of a travelogue that highlights the different facets of Barbadiana, if you will. If there is any truth in the adage a “picture is worth a thousand words, whether it is about politics, religion, sport, tourism, jazz, Barbados at the United Nations, the presence of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan, former President Bill Clinton or Barbadians and other West Indians having a good time during the West Indian American Day Carnival on Labour Day, people receiving awards or Bajans simply excelling professionally and otherwise, then you can find it in the book with black and white and colour photographs and short sketches of life.
“It’s a lesson in our history,” said Lennox Price, Barbados’ Consul-General in New York, who leaves office in a few weeks after serving for six years. “Having lived through many of the events covered in the book, it brings those occasions and the players involved back to our consciousness.”
Selma Brown-Bramble, head of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s office in New York, echoed many sentiments when she said “the book is a valuable addition to anybody’s collection.”