From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: AMERICAN PICTURES (Pamphlet, side one)
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 19:43:40 GMT


    My fears may have been well founded: The Village Voice revealed
    that the U.S.  State Department, worried about the impact of the
    book, commissioned photographers to present the "other side" of
    America.

==================================================================

Dear Reader:

The English version of the book American Pictures is now  here.  On my
latest tours I have had a chance to  update the  material, revisit the
people in the underclass and see  how their  situation worsened in the
1980s.  Also feedback from the audience in America gave me new insight
and ideas  on   how better to  overcome the  gap  between American and
Scandinavian thinking.

HISTORY OF THE BOOK

When the show became  an event  upon my  original return from America,
several publishers asked me to  make  a book.  Confused  about  how to
condense the great amount of material, I ended up  just using the text
from the  show and personal letters to  friends,  illustrating it with
800 photos in  black and white.   In spite of the sloppy  approach the
first print sold out in two weeks and in Denmark  it has since sold in
equivalent  of 3 million  copies in America.   In  Germany it  was the
longest running  foreign book on the  bestseller  list.   The book was
sold to 9  countries.  The  sudden  success  frightened me and I found
myself using    lawyers  and   much money to   stop  the "Frankenstein
monster".   The  world contract was  cancelled  and  the  book was not
published  in more countries  - the  reason why it  did not  appear in
English until now.  My fears may have  been well  founded: The Village
Voice   revealed that  the U.S.  State  Department, worried  about the
impact of the book,  commissioned photographers to present  the "other
side" of America.

THE NEW BOOK

Technically the new book is unique  among documentary photo  books.  I
spent $35,000   improving my primitive  snapshot  pictures on advanced
laser scanners.  Yet the price of the book  is  only  half that of the
European book.  The main text  now contains a  deeper investigation of
racism, including   the causes of  my own  growing  racism   during my
journey.   The parts on poverty  have also been expanded for  American
readers with information on how European  welfare states have tried to
solve similar problems in order to give capitalism a human face.  Even
as a travel book, which made it the hottest gift item among highschool
students in Europe, the book has been updated with more travel stories
on what really happened in my encounters with TedKennedy, Rockefeller,
street criminals, etc.   Not to  speak  of that aspect which  troubled
American  spectators  most:  my relationship to   underclass women, or
indeed  women in general.  The  personal letters describe the problems
of sexism and hetero-sexism my "Yes" philosophy could present.  I hope
the book will now help give  Americans trust in their beautiful fellow
citizens again - a trust I have  seen rapidly  fading in the  last ten
years.  Several large publishers wanted the book stating that it could
become a bestseller.    I couldn't reach any   satisfactory agreement.
Also   they didn't    employ a single   black  and I felt that    such
institutionalized racism would betray  my friends in  the book.  Sales
of the book is therefore to a large degree handled by  the people _in_
it.  (My schedule is now so tight that I can no longer supply and keep
track of other stree people sellers.  One, my  Philadelphia seller was
shot  to death.)  American publishers  estimated  it would cost almost
$30   to  produce each book.   I  therefore  publish it  myself with a
printing bill of $65,000 each year.  To keep the price  low, I sell it
below production cost to the few bookstores I deal with and recoup the
loss on direct sales.  I hope therefore that you  will want to buy the
book directly  from me,  the author, or  by  using the mailorder form.
Since many schools from Yale to BErkeley now use  it in their courses,
I hope to keep it alive.  You may also want to buy it as  a gift for a
friend who has been especially hurt by a racist  upbringing  - perhaps
one of your parents.

ANY PROFIT ON THE BOOK?

If I make a profit, the money from the  book belongs to my projects in
Africa.  I am often asked why I decided to spend  the money in Africa.
The answer is simple: the money came from European  readers and should
be spent where _we_ caused  misery.  We kept  our  colonies out in our
backyards, while America brought hers home.   To help transfer capital
back, I helped build  the Nyafaru School in  Zimbabwe, the  Kwanza Sul
nursing school for Manibian refugees in Angola and the Batsiranai farm
in Azimbabwe.  It  is a  great joy for me to  visit and  stay in touch
with 1500 children and  adults  in  these  successful  projects.   The
earnings from the  American show  belongs to a non-profit organization
which supports constructive  projects in the  USA.  You can  suport it
with tax-deductible donations or by  helping to bring  the show to new
schools.  Please  contact my agent if you  want to  set up  a show.  I
continually update the show, but to  stay  in touch with  the changing
American reality it is important to get feed-back  on the book and the
show.  So I hope you will write to me with your reactions.  Especially
if  you  came  with  a   heavy  racist  "baggage" did the  show change
anything, loosen up a knot or two?  And  for blacks: did the show help
clarify  for you  the effects of internalized  racism  on yourself?  I
hope to stay in touch with  you.  I may  see you in  new schools, pick
you up hitch-hiking - or you may want to one day help me drive some of
the thousands of tedious  miles so I could  do a little reading for  a
change.  Or you may stay in my house in Denmark one  day,  as hundreds
of  Americans have.  Somehow  I hope we both  carry  a  little of each
other with us after this evening.

with love, Jacob Holdt.
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive