Sade Boyewa El

Sade Boyewa El is the founder and curator of Faces of Harlem. Boyewa El brings her philosophy about uncovering beauty to everything she does. Starting her career as an internationally renowned makeup artist, she then became the beauty editor for TRACE Magazine.

When she’s not growing vegetables or mushrooms in the community garden of love, which she founded in the early 90’s, or stocking the first free food fridge in Manhattan, the Harlem Community Fridge—which she founded in 2020—she’s taking stunning portraits of her beloved neighbors and friends. In 2018, she started The Harlem PoP-Up Collective to support, elevate, and empower local Harlem artists, creators, designers, movers and shakers. During this time, she started setting up the Faces of Harlem pop-up photo booth, creating portraits of people in Harlem.

Bringing this project to fruition is many years in the making, but the stars aligned in finding collaborators and photographers that share her vision.

Boyewa El earned a B.A. in social psychology of women, gender and the family from the CUNY Baccalaureate Program for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies.