Laylah Amatullah Barrayn is a documentary photographer and writer. She is the co-author of the independently published MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, the first anthology in nearly 30 years that highlights photography produced by women of African descent. Barrayn is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. Her work has been included in books like Black: A Celebration of a Culture edited by Dr. Deborah Willis, Photography, A Feminist History by Emma Lewis, and Streams of Consciousness: Bamako Encounters — African Biennale of Photography edited by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung.
Barrayn’s personal and professional projects have taken her from Minneapolis to Malaysia to Martinique to Mauritania, among many global locales where she focuses her inquiries on Black diasporic communities with a special interest in religious traditions, aesthetics and the experiences of women. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo exhibitions at the Museum of the African Diaspora San Francisco and the Taubman Museum of Art (VA). In 2018, she was included as one of the Royal Photographic Society’s (UK) Hundred Heroines. Barrayn earned an M.A. from New York University. She is currently working on a book on contemporary Black photographers.
Photo Credit: Alex Bershaw
We Are Present is an excerpt of portraits taken in New York and Minneapolis that documents the lived experiences of Black Americans during the double crisis of the pandemic, and the uprisings against injustice.
ALTAR: Prayer, Ritual, Offering engages photography as a practice containing attributes and religious traditions of Africa and its diaspora.
Learn MoreThis exhibition takes the altar out of its religious context and interrogates photography as a practice containing the same attributes as altars. The images presented in this exhibition examines several religious traditions that have originated in and/or practiced on the African continent and throughout the world.
Learn MoreBehind the Shutter is a live visual storytelling event that gives Black Shutter Productions’ guests an opportunity to talk about their work and their process of making images.
Learn MoreA panel discussion moderated by MFON co-founders Laylah Amatullah Barryan and Adama Delphine Fawundu will feature contributing photographers sharing perspectives on photography and spirituality.
Learn MoreJoin us for a fast-paced presentation by a unique group of cross-disciplined Photoville artists as they reveal their sources of creativity.
Learn MoreA panel discussion moderated by MFON co-founders, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn and Adama Delphine Fawundu, will feature contributing photographers sharing perspectives on photography and spirituality.
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