Civil Rights activist Marianne Wright Edelman once said “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.” While can’t might be a bit strong, as marginalized and disenfranchised people have been finding a way to claw their way to the dignified lives they deserve, there’s no denying the power and importance of media representation.
Art, music, words, and images are strange and powerful things. They’re like dreams made flesh, crystalized from our hearts, souls, and imaginations into concrete, tangible reality. Once we have, these visions can shape and sculpt other people‘s dreams. The way we look at the world and the art that we make becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, a feedback loop that becomes the new limits of reality. Because of this, it’s vitally important we consider not only what images we’re looking at but who’s telling the story, too.
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with history should not be shocked to learn that the media representation of Black people throughout history isn’t great. The early days of photography, recorded music, and the film industry is full of racial stereotypes, white supremacy, and the colonialist gaze. For far too long, Black people had to make do with whatever depictions they could get or else disappear completely. Luckily for us, Black artists of all kinds kept pushing, refusing to stay put down, rising above the occasion to create some of the most vital, powerful, moving artwork the world has ever known.
This list of 25 Black photographers is a celebration. It’s a testament to the fearless, forward-looking vision of photographers like Gordon Parks, who managed to create some of the 20th Century’s most vital, powerful images despite living in Jim Crow America. It’s a celebration of the photographers themselves, too, of course, and of their communities. It’s a celebration of Black excellence, Black joy, and exceptional Black photography from all over the world.
Art Photographers
Banksie With Da Books
Photographer Banksie With Da Books on Bluesky is a hobbyist photographer with a professional artist’s drive. She posts pics of her day-to-day life nearly every day on Bluesky, capturing everything from beloved family heirlooms to moody b&w landscape shots. It’s fascinating and endlessly inspiring to watch a talent grow and develop in real-time.
Prince Gyasi
Ghana’s Prince Gyasi Nyantakyi, who works under the name Prince Gyasi, is a photographer and visual artist blurring the line between portraiture and art photography, transforming his stunning portrait photography into surreal, wondrous, whimsical wonderland of bold, striking colors. Prince Gyasi’s work is also a reminder you don’t need to spend a fortune on photographic equipment to take great photos, as much of his work is shot using an iPhone in an effort to subvert the imaginary division between “high” and “low art.”
https://www.instagram.com/princejyesi/
Editorial Photographers
Fashion show with young girls in white dresses//Image Credit: California State University, Los Angeles
Cam Hicks
Virginia-born, NY/LA-based photographer and creative director splits his time between capturing moody, striking, poetic, artistic portraits and stunning commercial photography for brands like Louis Vutton and Reebok.
https://www.instagram.com/camhicks_/?hl=en
Dana Scruggs
New York-based editorial photographer and Dana Scruggs has photographed everyone from Kim Kardashian to Megan Thee Stallion to Janelle Monae and Mariah Carey. Her work has been featured on the cover of Time Magazine multiple times, but she still finds time to do inspiring commercial work and fine art photography. Scruggs is an absolute genius when it comes to capturing the beauty and poetry of Black bodies.
https://www.instagram.com/danascruggs
Fashion Photographers
Campbell Addy
British-Ghanian fashion photography has earned him everything from fashion awards to getting listed as part of Forbes’ 30 Under 30. He’s also had several solo exhibitions, earning rave reviews, and published a well-regarded photo monograph, Feeling Seen.
https://www.instagram.com/campbelladdy/
Micaiah Carter
Micaiah Carter does it all. He’s done high profile fashion photography for Vogue and GQ, among others, and commercial shoots for brands like Hennessy, Apple, and Nike but he also shoots stunning portraits of fascinating personalities like Saweetie and Issa Rae as well as striking art photography and candid shots from his community
https://www.instagram.com/micaiahcarter/?hl=en
Alvin Kamau
Alvin Kamau is a self-taught photographer fashion and beauty photographer from Kenya, whose work blends style, sophistication, artistry, and imagination. He was the recipient of the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards.
https://www.worldphoto.org/team-profile/alvin-kamau-kenya
https://www.instagram.com/barutti_/
Tyler Mitchell
Tyler Mitchell was the first African-American photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue, with his landmark portrait of Beyoncé gracing the cover of the September 2018 edition. He’s gone on to become one of the leading voices in expanding Blackness, receiving the prestigious Royal Photographic Society in 2021 and getting included in the influential fashion photography book The New Black Vanguard.
https://www.instagram.com/tylersphotos/?hl=en
Fine Art Photographers
Aida Muluneh
Ethiopian photographer Aida Muluneh uses a mixture of striking portraiture, bold colors and bodypaint to create her Afrofuturist visions. She’s become one of the leading voices in African photography, becoming the first black woman to co-curate the Nobel Peace Prize and founding the Addis Foto Fest (AFF), the first international photography festival in East Africa, held since 2010 in Addis Ababa, and the Africa Foto Fair, established in 2022 in Côte d’Ivoire.
https://www.instagram.com/aidamuluneh/?hl=en
Gregory Prescott
Gregory Prescott uses his camera like a painter uses a paintbrush, capturing a diverse range of genders, sexualities, skin and body types, often in the natural world. As Prescott puts it, “There is a current movement that is long overdue, in showing more diversity in the media and I tend to expand that movement in art photography.”
We couldn’t agree more.
https://www.instagram.com/gregoryprescott/
Rashod Taylor
Rashod Taylor is a Fine Art and Portrait photographer whose work focuses on family, intimacy, and the Black experience. His work can be found as part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
https://www.rashodtaylor.com/1546693-info
http://instagram.com/rashodtaylorphoto
Manuel Armenis
Manuel Armenis’ work is fascinated with the lives of everyday people in urban environments, captured using rich, jewel-like analog tones and crisp, detailed black and white photography. Armenis is based out of Hamburg, Germany.
https://www.manuelarmenis.com/
https://www.instagram.com/manuelarmenis/
Carrie Mae Weems
Best known for her Kitchen Table Series, Weems not only recontextualized Black subjects in photography, but also the importance of women, reclaiming domestic spaces as the cornerstone of life.
https://www.carriemaeweems.net/
https://www.instagram.com/carriemaeweems/
Nature Photographers
Lu Young
Lu Young splits his time shooting flowers, wild animals, and travel destinations on film with a Sony A7RV and vintage lenses. It’s completely impossible to not be inspired by the gorgeous, dreamy palettes of his color photography or the crisp details of his black and white work.
https://photoluglobal.darkroom.com/
Photojournalists
Devin Allen
Baltimore’s Devin Allen came to public consciousness when his photo of Baltimore unrest made the cover of Time Magazine in 2015. He’s gone on to release the incredible photobook No Justice, No Peace showcasing a photographic history of Black protest from the Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s to the Black Lives Matters protests of our present moment.
https://www.instagram.com/bydvnlln/
Arlette Bashizi
Congolese photojournalist Arlette Bashizi captures the daily life happening around her as a way to denounce the injustices she sees.
https://www.instagram.com/arty_bashizi/
https://www.arlettebashizi.com/
Zied Ben Romdhane
Zied Ben Romdhane is a Magnum Photos photojournalist from Tunisia who’s shot everything from children suffering from photosensitivity to the effects of climate change and colonialism in North Africa.
https://www.instagram.com/ziedbromdhane/
Marilyn Nance
Not only is Marilyn Nance’s photography stunning and endlessly creative, it’s also capital-I Important. Nance is best known for capturing the FESTAC’77 festival in 1977, a celebration in favor of a Pan-African identity that featured over 15,000 artists, intellectuals, and performers from over 55 countries, becoming one of the largest celebrations of Black identity and culture the world had ever seen. Nance’s images were compiled into Last Day In Lagos in 2022, a gorgeous artbook depicting Black excellence and sheer radiant joy in crisp monochrome
https://www.instagram.com/marilyn.nance/?hl=en
Nicky Quamini – Woo
Nicky Quamini – Woo shoots in a mixture of photojournalism, documentary, travel, and portrait photography to tell her visual stories, ranging from heavy and hard-hitting topics like healthcare in Tanzania to inspiring, insightful portraiture to colorful photos of breathtaking landscapes. Quamini-Woo was one of the winner’s of last year American Photography awards from American Illustration.
https://www.instagram.com/nickywoophoto/
Portrait Photographers
Janice Reid
Canadian-Jamaican photographer Janice Reid splits her time between portraiture, fashion photography, and fine art, displaying her work everything from Dazed Digital to The Art Gallery of Hamilton.
https://www.instagram.com/janice.reid/
Bete van Meeuwen
Based out of Amsterdam, Bete van Meeuwen uses her portraiture to break down stereotypes around gender, race, and sexuality, to stunning result.
https://www.instagram.com/betephotography/?hl=en
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