Hidden Essentials

A humanist with roots in Central, Southern Africa, and the Mediterranean, Albert Russo writes in both English and French. An award-winning author and photographer, he has published over 35 books of prose and poetry and 55 photobooks. His work has been translated into 15 languages and has been acclaimed by James Baldwin, Edmund White, Chinua Achebe, Joseph Kessel and Pierre Emmanuel (both of the Académie Française), among others. His main books are AFRICAN QUATUOR, THE CROWDED WORLD OF SOLITUDE, vol. 1 (stories and essays spanning 40 years), which received an Honorable Mention from the 2005 Writer’s Digest International Book Awards, THE CROWDED WORLD OF SOLITUDE, vol. 2 (his poems spanning 40 years). His definitive biography, UNDER THE SHIRTTAILS OF ALBERT RUSSO was penned by the Norwegian African-American writer, poet and artist Adam Donaldson Powell. He was also a member of the 1996 jury for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature which often leads to the Nobel Prize. His photos have been exhibited in the Louvre Museum, at the Espace Pierre Cardin, both in Paris, in Times Square, New York, at the Museum of Photography in Lausanne, Switzerland, in Art Berlin, in Tokyo, in Moscow, etc. The former Mayor of the Big Apple, Mr. Bloomberg, has lauded his two photobooks on Paris and New York.