Photoville

Michelle V. Agins
Michelle V. Agins
Michelle V. Agins
Michelle V. Agins

Michelle V. Agins has been a staff photographer for the New York Times for more than 30 years. This retrospective celebrates her work and her ongoing commitment to the photojournalism community.

Artist Bios

  • Michelle V. Agins

    Michelle V. Agins has been a staff photographer at the New York Times since June 1989, and is the company’s second Black female staff photographer.

    She began her career in the 1970s in her hometown of Chicago as a photography intern for the Chicago Daily News, moving on to become a sports photographer there. She taught photography both at Loyola University and University of Illinois, Chicago. After a brief stint at the South Shore Sentinel Newspaper, she took a job as a photographer and audio-visual specialist for the City of Chicago’s Department of Human Services.

    When Harold Washington became Chicago’s first Black mayor in 1983, Michelle became his office photographer, a position she held until 1987 when she joined the Charlotte Observer.

    Michelle’s photographs have been widely exhibited and her work has been recognized by many professional organizations. Her 1989 work on the Bensonhurst protests and her 1994 work “Another America: Life on 129th Street” were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She was part of the Times team that won the Pulitzer in 2001 for the series “How Race Is Lived In America.”

    Michelle has been awarded an honorary degree from Dominican University, from which she graduated. And in 2019, she was awarded the National Press Photographers Association’s highest honor, the Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, for her “commitment to the craft of visual journalism and to education that advances the profession.”

Organizations

  • The New York Times

    The New York Times

    Since 1851, the New York Times has been on the ground reporting stories from around the globe that no one else was telling. How we tell those stories has changed, but our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world has remained constant.

Michelle V. Agins: A Retrospective Of A Pioneering New York Times Photographer

 archive : 2021

Featuring: Michelle V. Agins

Curated by: Michelle V. Agins Becky Lebowitz Hanger Meaghan Looram

Presented by: The New York Times
  • The New York Times

Locations

View Location Details Brooklyn Bridge Park – Pier 1

Old Fulton and Furman St
Brooklyn, NY 11201

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Related Events

Sep 182021

10 Under 10

Photoville’s 10 Under 10 featuring presentations from The New York Times, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Abrons Arts Center, Magnum Foundation, Pulitzer Center, Indigenous Photo, United Nations Women, Joseph Rodriguez, The Darkroom Masters, and National Geographic featuring live music from Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project.

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