In November 1962, photographer Steve Schapiro came across an essay in the New Yorker by James Baldwin. The Harlem-born civil rights activist and essayist had written a letter, titled “My Dungeon Shook,” to his 14-year-old nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Later published under the title “The Fire Next Time,” Baldwin addresses his experience as a black man in America.
Baldwin’s words have been paired with 100 of Schapiro’s black and white images, some previously unpublished, in a new art edition from Taschen called “The Fire Next Time.” An exhibition of Schapiro’s photos, “Freedom Now. Civil Rights Photographs: 1963-1968,” are at Fahey/Klein Gallery through Sept. 2.