The symposium keynote discussion featuring Dr. Deborah Willis and Joy Gregory as they explore the vital role of archiving, preserving, and exploring photography and visual culture within African American, Black British, and the broader African diaspora.
Presenters: Dr. Deborah Willis Joy Gregory
Location: Parsons, The New School
Presented by:
Supported by:
The inaugural MFON Global Symposium was a one-day event dedicated to archiving and elevating the voices of women and non-binary photographers of African descent. Curated by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn and Adama Delphine Fawundu, the free and open-to-the-public symposium featured a series of panel discussions with scholars, artists, and curators, exploring themes such as archiving stories, new perspectives in art and practice, contemporary artistic landscapes, and innovative documentary photography.
The keynote discussion featured acclaimed photographers, scholars, and archivists as they explored the vital role of archiving, preserving, and exploring photography and visual culture within African American, Black British, and the broader African diaspora. They discussed the importance of representation and storytelling in preserving diverse narratives, drawing on their extensive pioneering work.
Deborah Willis, Ph.D., is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She has affiliated appointments with the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Social & Cultural Analysis and the Institute of Fine Arts, where she teaches courses on Photography & Imaging, iconicity, and cultural histories visualizing the black body, women, and gender. She is the director of NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture/Institute of African American Affairs.
She is the author of The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship and Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, among others. Dr. Willis’ curated exhibitions include: “Framing Moments” in the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, and “Free as They Want to Be: Artists Committed to Memory” at FotoFocus.
Dr. Willis was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and was a Richard D. Cohen Fellow in African and African American Art at the Hutchins Center at Harvard University, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, and an Alphonse Fletcher Jr. Fellow. She was the Robert Mapplethorpe Photographer in Residence of the American Academy in Rome and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a recipient of the Don Tyson Prize for the Advancement of American Art by the Crystal Bridges Museum in 2022, was named the Mary Lucille Dauray Artist-in-Residence by the Norton Museum of Art, and taught her Master Class titled Home, Reimagining Interiority at Anderson Ranch in 2023.
Joy Gregory is an award-winning artist specialising in photography, who is known for her work concerning issues of identity politics and ‘beauty’ culture. A graduate of Manchester Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art, she has worked and exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally, participating in numerous biennials and festivals. Her work is featured in both private and public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, UK Government Art Collection, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, and Yale University, New Haven.
She is the editor of ‘Shining Lights’, an anthology of Black British Women’s Photography in 1980s and 1990’s published by MACK/Autograph available February 2024.
MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora is an independently published anthology edited by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn and Adama Delphine Fawundu. MFON features photographic works created by 118 African and Diasporic women artists representing 27 nations. It will soon be relaunched as an online platform. Our goal is to promote an international representative voice of women photographers from continental Africa and its diaspora.
Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.
In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.
By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.
Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.
For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
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