tance(Alternative Museum 1992). The impact of her
work spread, and notable national exhibits included
Words and Pictures(The Light Factory, Charlotte,
NC, 1992) andEncounter 6: Deborah Willis(Center
for Creative Photography in Tucson, AZ, 1994).
Personal narrative and visual history became two
important themes in her images, and she drew on
stories and relics from her childhood such as her
father’s aspiration to become a tailor and her Aunt
Cora’s quilts, both of which were symbolic of her
family heritage. Weaving and textiles, two important
themes in exhibits such asDebra Willis: Photo/Quilt
Stories(1996),Conceptual Textiles(1995–1996), and
Fabricated Memories(2000), became important com-
ponents of her work in the 1990s and beyond. Telling
personal histories through her photographs, symbo-
lically in the structure of the textiles and visually in
the images, Willis-Kennedy describes her works as
visual diaries of personal events. They are not reac-
tionary against racism, but seek to uncover a history
that was neglected by the larger American story and
mainstream canon. By looking at specific groups of
people and visualizing their narratives, her works
began as autobiographical and expanded to include
projects such asPicturing the Modern Amazon(New
Museum, NY, 2000). This project portrayed African
American female bodybuilders with the knowledge
of their own unique history and place in contempor-
ary culture.
Willis-Kennedy was employed as the Curator of
Photographs and Prints and Exhibition Coordina-
tor at The New York Public Library, Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture, from 1980
until 1992. While at this position, she began her
research on African American photographic his-
tory and retraced its role in shaping the visual
memory of American culture. Her M.A. in art
history and museum studies, which she received
from the City College of New York in 1986, also
further influenced her focus on the study of the
photograph as an art object and visual artifact.
Her textVANDERZEE: The Portraits of James
VanDerZee(1993) focused on was the manner in
which VanDerZee’s images created a social history
of the emerging African American middle class
between the two world wars in Harlem, New
York. Willis-Kennedy claimed that his portraits
were not created in a neutral documentary manner,
but rather as subjective social mementoes of the
emerging black middle class that were expressive
and personal to VanDerZee. She also criticized the
neutral stance of critics that claimed his work was
only documentary, and stressed the historicity of
the photographic medium in framing and re-fram-
ing cultural perspectives. After her tenure at The
New York Public Library, Willis-Kennedy became
the Associate Director for Research and Collec-
tions, Exhibitions Curator, and Museum Specialist
at the Center for African American Research and
Culture at the Smithsonian Institution in Washing-
ton, D.C. These research positions and her subse-
quent work established her as an expert on African
American photographers and photo history and
her contributions included the text and subsequent
traveling exhibitionReflections In Black: A History
of Black Photographers—1840 to the Present
(2000). This text was monumental in its investiga-
tion and recovery of the rich legacy of African-
American photography, and provided an invaluable
resource to American historiography and its miss-
ing pieces. This text also placed Willis as the fore-
most expert on African-American photographic
history, and her numerous lectures and presenta-
tions on the subject reinforced her status as a
research specialist in the field. Willis-Kennedy’s
recent work includes the investigation of the Black
female form through the legacy of photographic
images inThe Black Female Body In Photography.
She examines the presentation of the Black female
body as a cultural object, and explores its layered
meanings through the images that portray women
of varied social, racial, and class levels. Earning a
Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from George Mason Uni-
versity (2003), Willis-Kennedy focused upon the
identity and interpretation of the ‘‘new negro’’ in
photographic images for her dissertation topic.
Willis-Kennedy’s professional career expanded
from research and curatorial work to pedagogical
pursuits. She taught photographic history at the
Brooklyn Museum, New York University, and the
City University of New York. In 2000, she was ap-
pointed the Lehman Brady Chair in Documentary
Studies and American Studies at Duke University in
Durham, North Carolina. This dual appointment at
Duke and the University of North Carolina at Cha-
pel Hill placed Willis-Kennedy in the Center for
Documentary Studies (Duke) and the American Stu-
dies curriculum (UNC), and her expertise created a
course entitled ‘‘Visualizing Culture’’ that focused
on the range of methods used in the humanities to
study visual culture. She is currently Professor of
Photography and Imaging at New York University’s
Tisch School of the Arts.
JenniferHeadley
Seealso:Representation and Gender; Representa-
tion and Race; Visual Anthropology; VanDerZee,
JamesWILLIS-KENNEDY, DEBORAH