Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice

Rarey reviews Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice by Krista A. Thompson. In her brilliant Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice, Krista A. Thompson considers four "lens-centered" aesthetic practices across the circum-Caribbean: street photography in Atlanta and New Orleans; Jamaican dancehall spectacles; extravagant prom entrances in the Bahamas; and the bling aesthetics of contemporary transnational hip-hop. Thompson argues "contemporary diasporic formation takes place in the light of technology, in the flickering, unsettled, reflective and bright surfaces, the pixels, of photographic and videographic representation."