Why Did Coreen Simpsons’s Stylish Pictures of Exuberant Black Life Fail to Reach a Wider Audience Until Now?

Front cover of Coreen Simpson: A Monograph (Aperture, 2025); cover image: Coreen Simpson, Jamien, 1982, from the series ‟B-Boys.”Courtesy the artist.The photographs in Coreen Simpson’s new monograph are nearly all frontal shots. Whether taken on the street, in the studio, in clubs, or at home, those whom she has pictured scarcely turn away. One outstanding portrait among her early work—titled Cooking Is My Game (Lady Chef), Velma Jones (1977)—shows a genial woman h