Published in 1991 by Aperture Foundation in English and Arthaud in French, DANCING ON FIRE: Photographs from Haiti chron­i­cles the first five years after the fall of the Duvalier family’s 30-year dic­ta­tor­ship in Haiti. The pho­tographs cov­er the time peri­od from the first day of free­dom for Haitians through the elec­tion of for­mer priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide as pres­i­dent, along with con­tin­u­ing polit­i­cal con­flict and the dai­ly lives of peo­ple whose ances­tors waged the only suc­cess­ful slave revolt in world his­to­ry to estab­lish the first Black Republic in the world. This rev­o­lu­tion is an ongo­ing point of pride among Haitians. Maggie Steber offers a pic­ture of Haiti that includes a vibrant cul­ture and a nation plagued by tur­moil that is often cre­at­ed by out­side forces. The pho­tographs go beyond the calami­ty of polit­i­cal tur­bu­lence to show the hero­ism of the peo­ple as they dream of free­dom and mod­est pros­per­i­ty.

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