Brown Girls and Guys With A Camera

04/07/2022

Only 4 Black photographers in the room during Judge Brown’s confirmation hearing and our own Cheriss May was one of them!!

Sarahbeth Maney, Michael McCoy, Jarrad Henderson and Cheriss May are each used to being one of the only Black photographers in the room. This time was different.

07/19/2021

Jide Alakija is an internationally renowned photographer with over 10 years’ experience in shooting multicultural weddings, documentaries and editorial campaigns. 
Regularly piquing the interest of international icons and A-list celebrities through his captivating eye, Alakija’s recent clients include Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka; hip hop artist and producer, J.Cole; acclaimed novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; and Didier Drogba, former
Chelsea F.C. soccer player. 

Passionate about African art, Alakija is the co-owner of Tafeta & Partners, a private dealership specializing in 20th century and contemporary African art. Based in London, UK, the gallery regularly showcases at some of the worlds premier art events including Art Basel Miami, The Hamptons Art Fair, New York and 1-54 Contemporary Art air; and represents renowned names like Yinka Shonibare, MBE on the African continent. 

Jide’s assignments have taken him across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the U.S.

07/16/2021

Originally from the Southside of Chicago, Dana Scruggs has been living and working in New York as a photographer and director for the past 7 years.

At the early stages of her career, she launched SCRUGGS Magazine — a print publication dedicated to her vision of the male form. The magazine was her way to create editorial and creative content because none of the magazines she approached would hire her. She wrote and photographed all the content herself and the seminal issue became more akin to her visual diary and personal manifesto.

After self-assigning for almost six years, Dana was offered the opportunity to shoot ESPN’s Body Issue, which was her first breakthrough in the industry. Synonymously, Dana then became the 1st Black Female photographer to shoot an athlete for the Body Issue in its 10-year history. Since then, Dana has further broken down barriers in the industry by becoming the 1st Black person to photograph the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine in its 50-year history.

Dana’s unique vision of the human form continues to be utilized by many brands and publications globally.

07/15/2021

****ATTENTION ARKANSAS****

We are on a mission to connect with as many brown girls + guys with a camera as possible from every major city, state and eventually, every country in the world. We know it’s a tall order but hear us out! It’s our goal to build a comprehensive directory of creatives of color so as to make it easier for organizations, companies, small business owners and every day people who want to work with us to find us and hire us, all in one place.

Google searches for black photographers, black female photographers, photographers of color isn’t going to cut it, especially if you aren’t using those tags in your images for SEO purposes and driving traffic to your website so we have to advocate for ourselves and make it happen.

But we can’t do it alone, please help by tagging as many brown girls + guys with a camera as possible. We have something major coming and it requires all hands on deck. Will you help us make history? TAG AWAY!

PLEASE SHARE & SPREAD THE WORD!

07/14/2021

Having an understanding of your business finances is crucial to running a profitable and successful business and something we don’t discuss nearly enough so here are 7 simple and useful tips to help you get your finances under control now!

1. Separate your financial accounts by opening a business bank account. Treat your account like a pool of money where all your profits flow in and out of and write a check to your personal account monthly.

2. Save all of your receipts! All of them! Save them physically or upload them into a file and categorize by month so when it’s tax time you have all of your ducks in a row and you can deduct accordingly.

3. Track your invoices. This can be done through accounting software or a simple spread sheet. Places like makes it easy to track them in one place!

4. Check your prices. Are you charging enough, will it cover your expenses and pay you a salary to live off of? As the cost of living increases so should your prices.

5. Create a budget. We know it’s not the most exciting part of doing business but it’s crucial. Knowing your cost of doing business will give you a clearer picture of how much income you’re actually bringing in and how much you should be charging. Try to save 3 to 6 months of expenses in your business account.

6. Save 30% of your income for taxes, Uncle Sam doesn’t play.

7. Ask for help! No clue what to do, where to start or just don’t have the time, hire an accountant, after all you can deduct it on your taxes.

07/14/2021

Andrew Thomas Clifton has emerged in the world of creative visuals as an imaginative and consistently evolving Imagineer. Raised in a variety of cities across the vast environments of the United States, he offers a piece of that vastness to the types of work that he works with including Photography and Videography to Creative Direction, and Graphic Design.

Andrew shares his genuine and heartfelt vision of the royal nature within the people, places, and things that are apart of the world around us. Andrew has no formal training or teaching, but a deep rooted love for visuals and for subjects that find themselves on the opposite side of his talent and the teams he manages. He is known for constantly combining his other passions (such as science, poetry, and vintage motion pictures) into that work for a style that he likes to call “Funky Fine Art Journalism."

With beginnings in self-taught photographic experiments dating back to 2005, Andrew produces timeless visuals across the spectrum of creative genres and types that explore the roots of the core emotions that are common to all men and women. His black and white photography is noted as being especially provoking and legendary in the ability to captivate the eye with what would be under any other circumstance simply another moment...because Andrew swears that no moment can be regarded as such. His images are also often noted for their deep use of dynamic lighting contrast, a powerful and provoking bending of natural light, and an intimate connection with simple item in a seemingly complex world. He has noted that his job as a photographer is to interpret and love the nature and relativity of beauty across the universe and to share that viewpoint with the viewer.

07/12/2021

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn is an award-winning documentary and portrait photographer working in the medium for 20 years. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Times. Her work has also been published in Vogue, National Geographic, The Washington Post, VOX, NPR, BBC, The Nation, Le Monde, The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

She has exhibited nationally and internationally with solo exhibitions at The Museum of the African Diaspora San Francisco; The Taubman Museum of Art (VA); MAK Gallery (London) and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Arts (NY). Her work has been shown collectively at the MANIFESTA Biennale (Italy); Brighton Photo Biennial (UK); The Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin) among other institutions.

Barrayn was included in the Royal Photographic Society’s (UK) Hundred Heroines. She is a 2017 African Great Lakes Reporting Fellow with the International Women’s Media Foundation and a finalist for the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University.

She has given talks on her work at Yale University, Harvard University, The International Center of Photography, Tate Modern London, Rochester Institute of Technology, World Press Photo and The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She has sat on judging panels for The Alexia Grant, Pictures of the Year International, Getty Images, The Aftermath Project and FotoEvidence.

Barrayn is co-author of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, the first anthology in nearly 30 years that highlights photography produced by women of African descent. She is a member of Kamoinge, a pioneering collective of African American photographers founded in 1963. Barrayn holds a Masters degree in Art Politics from New York University. She is currently working on a book about contemporary Black photographers due out 2022.

07/08/2021

That part! Everything in divine order.

06/10/2021

Jamaal McKenzie is a Published Wedding, Portrait and Events Photographer based in the Washington, D.C. area.

About Jamaal:
He has been described as an ever-evolving romantic, a perfectionist and a serial creative. With a perspective deeply rooted in expressive art-forms such as musicianship & spoken word, Jamaal approaches every story with an unwavering respect and veneration for each moment.

Bred in Brooklyn, New York and tempered in a variety of cities across the vast United States and South America, Jamaal brings a familiar, yet fine-tuned touch, lodging echoes of that vastness in every image.

Jamaal produces timeless visuals and agencies across the conduits of creative genres, exploring the roots of the emotions at the core of us all.

06/08/2021

Amen and happy Tuesday ✊🏾

06/07/2021

****ATTENTION TENNESSEE****

We are on a mission to connect with as many brown girls + guys with a camera as possible from every major city, state and eventually, every country in the world. We know it’s a tall order but hear us out! It’s our goal to build a comprehensive directory of creatives of color so as to make it easier for organizations, companies, small business owners and every day people who want to work with us to find us and hire us, all in one place.

Google searches for black photographers, black female photographers, photographers of color isn’t going to cut it, especially if you aren’t using those tags in your images for SEO purposes and driving traffic to your website so we have to advocate for ourselves and make it happen.

But we can’t do it alone, please help by tagging as many brown girls + guys with a camera as possible. We have something major coming and it requires all hands on deck. Will you help us make history? TAG AWAY!

PLEASE SHARE & SPREAD THE WORD!

06/07/2021

Terri Baskin is an Internationally Published Wedding & Portrait Photographer based in Virginia.

About Terri:
He gave me my first camera to document life through my young eyes, and I enjoyed every opportunity to do just that. I became known as the friend with the camera! Years later, He taught me how to anticipate moments, and he was the first to train me when I found my way back to the camera in 2010…

Growing up, I witnessed the love of my mother and father, and I have always known what it feels like to be loved. Today, I document love stories in a way that allows couples to be their authentic selves. I want to tell a love story - your story.

Hopeless romantic. Believer in love. Understands that  everyone is unique and their story is their own. Behind the camera, I am looking for the timeless moments, a glance, a smile, a tear...yes, cue the tears! These are the things that drive my passion for weddings. This is why I love getting to know my clients, because this is your one special day together that happens quickly but creates a lifetime of memories! I am Terri and I tell authentic love stories!