Photographer Gay Block’s amazing retrospective book, About Love (Radius Books), begins with early portraits from her suburban Houston, Texas, Jewish milieu. Block then shifts her focus, in this collection of photographs and films — five films on two DVDs are included — to Miami’s South Beach and its colorful residents. The beautiful, large-format art book covering her work from 1973 to 2003 includes a chapter on “Rescuers,” portraits of the Righteous Gentiles who sheltered Jews during the Shoah. Of local interest is Block’s portrait of the late Debbie Friedman (below), the St. Paul native and famed composer and singer, shown in Houston, in 1982. — M.S. (Photo: Gay Block)
(American Jewish World, 1.6.12)