Khary Mason

Khary Mason was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He is a former Detroit Police homicide detective. In 2020 Khary retired after serving 22 years. Looking back on his experiences, Khary often remarks on how altitude and the passage of time have given him a greater understanding of the world he seeks to change.

When Khary’s wife gave him his first camera in 2002, many years would pass before Khary realized that his emerging art practice was beginning to lay the foundation in examining the visual and written language of self defense through the art of storytelling. By studying his own lived experience, Khary was able to identify a causal link between stories being created/told by the individuals depicted in them, and their ability to inform the storyteller’s, and audience’s, belief in what is possible.

Khary, and Romain Blanquart launched Capturing Belief (CB) in 2016, a Detroit-based non profit that uses visual literacy and creative writing as instruments allowing students to better understand themselves and the world around them. In 2020 CB partnered with Inside Southwest Detroit to create “The Remote Ally Project”, an international initiative that allowed art lovers to experience the pandemic through the eyes of young people around the globe.

Khary is a Documenting Detroit Fellow (2019), studying the effects of incarceration on individuals and their families, as well as a Salzburg Global Fellow (2021), working with peers around the world on international issues of youth violence, safety, and justice. In 2022, Khary became a member of the faculty at The Kalish picture editing workshop held at Rochester Institute of Technology.

“No one should be able to tell your story better than you” KM