New Photography Book Recreates Iconic Hollywood Films With Black Actors In Leading Roles
Photographer Carell Augustus painted a picture with his camera of what iconic films would look like if Black actors and actresses were cast in the lead roles.
His newly released book, Black Hollywood: Reimagining Iconic Movie Moments, from Ebony Magazine publishing, sought to correct the omission of Black representation in film from the industry’s golden age through the 1980s, NPR reported.
“We were left out of these stories,” Augustus told the publication. “And oftentimes, when we saw ourselves in these stories, we were, you know, getting arrested or in a prison scene or in a gang scene. And I just wanted to do whatever I could to sort of change up the narrative, visually and artistically.”
Some of the classic films he reimagined include Singin' in the Rain, in which he reimagines Dulé Hill in the lead role instead of Gene Kelly, and Simbi Khali in the iconic shower scene in Psycho instead of Janet Leigh. And on the book cover, Amber Stevens West wears the elegant black dress in the role Audrey Hepburn made famous in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
The inspiration to recreate classic Hollywood films with Black actors came on the day Michael Jackson died, June 25, 2009.
“That day, no matter how you felt about him, his music was everywhere,” Augustus told The Los Angeles Times. “I just thought, as unfortunate as this whole thing is, at least he left the world all of this incredible talent to let us know that he was here. So that’s how it came to me. I wanted to do something impactful that I could focus on the Black community [with] and say, ‘Listen, I was here as an artist at one point.’”
