Filmmaker Ben Van Hook and Kelvin Hair, Alfred Hair's son, scouting locations and discussing the Highwaymen film in Ft. Pierce. Highwaymen Film in Production Red Brick Films is producing a Highwaymen feature film, and since I have complete confidence in Ben Van Hook and Eric Breitenbach’s abilities to realize a sensitive portrayal of the artists and their story, the film makers have my attention, faith and support. I’ve agreed to consult with them throughout the production. For information about the film as well as for investment opportunities, please contact Ben (ben@benvanhook.com) or Eric (flyakite@cfl.rr.com). Al Black’s amazing prison murals During his research for The Highwaymen: Florida’s African-American Landscape Painters, Gary Monroe interviewed Al Black in prison. When he saw the 90-plus murals that inmate Black painted on the walls throughout the sprawling compound and after talking about them with the artist, security staff, and other inmates, Mr. Monroe knew that the story and the art warranted further research and, ultimately, a book…. his third Highwaymen book. The Highwaymen Murals will be published by Florida’s renowned Cummer Museum of Art in Jacksonville in 2009, and will be released with the opening of their exhibition of the murals – photographed by the author in which the paintings are seen in the context of their unlikely setting. Al Black’s murals are the icing of the Highwaymen cake. The Highwaymen exhibition catalog, a beautiful first Having mounted the first Highwaymen exhibition to grace the walls of a major art museum, the Fort Lauderdale of Art published “Highwaymen Newton and Hair: The American Dream in the Sunshine State.” This beautiful oversized publication is a must-have for any Highwaymen fan. Besides showcasing all the paintings in the exhibit, it contains essays by Gary Monroe and Annegreth Nill, the museum’s chief curator. Copies can be purchased from the museum only. Call 954-525-5500. Supply is limited. Silver Springs: The Underwater World of Bruce Mozert Gary Monroe's book about Bruce Mozerts underwater photographs made to promote Silver Springs, was recently published by University Press of Florida. Read the follow-up article which he wrote for the April 2008 issue of Smithsonian Magazine at www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/da-life-aquatic.html. Esmond Barnhill: Florida Photographer, Adventurer, Entrepreneur E.G. Barnhill was a photographer during the early 1900s who has slipped through art history’s cracks. Now, with this book, his astonishing images will come to life along with his fascinating biography. From the then-popular hand-tinted tourist art photographs, Barnhill branched out to produce rarefied gold-toned photographs; these honey colored images were printed on glass. He took this further with uranium-dyed images, giving an unearthly glow to the Florida landscape. God Decides: Photographs of Haiti and Haitians The University of North Carolina Press, considered one of the nation’s top three academic publishers, will release Gary Monroe’s book of photographs of Haiti and Haitians, which were taken between 1980 ands 2000. During those trying years for the Haitian people, Mr. Monroe traveled throughout Haiti – 25 trips. He was granted the unprecedented permission to document their detention at the INS Krome Resettlement Camp and had traveled to many Haitian communities around Florida to record their nascent efforts at assimilation. This book promises to be the primary visual chronicle about Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora. The Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, one of the state’s leading art museums, will mount the exhibition of the original 100 photographs in 2009, to open with the release of the book. Lectures Gary Monroe has given 200 public and private lectures about the Highwaymen and self-taught Floridian art throughout the state and beyond, having earned the decisive voice in interpreting these interesting and often challenging artworks. Contact us to learn about arranging lectures. Acquiring books and paintings Please Contact us to order books (signed on request) and purchase original artwork by the Highwaymen and some of the finest contemporary self-taught artists in Florida. We also consult to individuals and corporations wanting to build fine and cohesive folk art collections.