Biography
Born in 1948. Attended Philadelphia College of Art, Phila-
delphia, PA, B.F.A. Photography, 1975; Pratt Institute,
Brooklyn, NY, M.F.A. Photography, 1980; City College
of New York, M.A. Art History, Museum Studies, 1986;
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, Ph.D. Cultural
Studies, 2003. Artist in Residence, Light Works, Syra-
cuse, NY, 1990; Critic in Residence, Maryland Art
Place, Baltimore, MD, 1990. Received Manhattan Bor-
ough President’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, 1986;
International Center of Photography Infinity Award for
Writing in Photography, 1995; Anonymous Was A
Woman Fellowship, 1996; The John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Fellow, 2000; The Studio Museum in
Harlem Award for Achievement in Scholarship, 2001;
James VanDerZee Award, Brandywine Printmaking
Workshop, 2002; Honorary Doctorate, Maryland Insti-
tute, College of Art, 2003. Represented by Bernice Stein-
baum Gallery, Miami, FL. Lives and works in
Washington, DC and New York, NY.
Individual Exhibitions
1994 Encounters 6: Deborah Willis; Center for Creative
Photography, Tucson, Arizona
1995 Deborah Willis: Family Matter; Steinbaum–Krauss
Gallery, New York, New York
2002 Beggars and Choosers; Birmingham Museum of Art,
Birmingham, Alabama
2003 Deborah Willis: Appearances; University of Wisconsin,
Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
2003 Mother to Son: Deborah Willis + Hank Thomas;
Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas
Embracing Eatonville: A Photographic Survey; Light
Work, Syracuse, New York
HairStories; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary
Art, Scottsdale, Arizona, and traveling
Selected Group Exhibitions
1986 Reflections of Self: Women Photographers; Fordham
University, New York, New York
1990 Occupation and Resistance; Alternative Museum, New
York, New York
1992 Words and Pictures; The Light Factory, Charlotte,
North Carolina
1993–1995Personal Narrative: Women Photographers of
Color; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Win-
ston-Salem, North Carolina, and traveling
1995 Cultural Baggage; Rice University, Houston, Texas
1995 Searching for Memories: Black Women and the 1895
Exposition; Atlanta Arts Festival, Atlanta, Georgia
1995 Photo Stories; Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
1996 Visual Griots; University of Maryland, Baltimore
County, Catonsville, Maryland
1998 Memorable Histories and Historic Memories; Bowdoin
College Museum of Art, Bowdoin, Maine
1999 The Comforts of Home; Hand Workshop Art Center,
Richmond, Virginia
1999 Re/Righting History: Counternarratives by Contempor-
ary African-American Artists; Katonah Museum of Art,
New York, New York
2000 Picturing the Modern Amazon; New Museum, New
York, New York
2001 Three Contemporary Artists in the Classroom; Center
for Documentary Studies, Duke University, Durham,
North Carolina
2001–2002Reading Between the Lines: Image, Text and the
African American Experience; Salt Lake Art Center, Salt
Lake City, Utah
2001–2003 Over the Sofa; Bernice Steinbaum Gallery,
Miami, Florida, and traveling
2003 Off the Record; The Skylight Gallery, Brooklyn, New
York
2003 Through our Lenses: Personal and Political Views of 18
Photographers; Nathan Cummings Foundation, New
York, New YorkFurther Reading
Abel, Elizabeth. ‘‘Domestic Borders, Cultural Boundaries:
Black Feminists Re-View the Family.’’ in ed. Marianne
Hirsch.
Ball, James P.Daguerrean and Studio Photographer. New
York: Garland Publishing 1992.
Ferris, Alison.Memorable Histories and Historic Memories.
Bowdoin, ME: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 1998.
Ferris, Alison. ‘‘Deborah Willis: Fabricated Histories.’’
Fabric Arts(March/April 1999).
Hall, Stuart, and Mark Sealy.Different.Boston: Phaidon
Press, 2002.
Harley, Sharon, and the Black Women and Work Collec-
tive, eds.Sister Circle: Black Women and Work.New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
Jones, Kellie. ‘‘A Contemporary Portfolio.’’Exposure27,
no. 4 (1990).
Kennedy, Winston. ‘‘Deborah Willis, Artist and Scholar.’’
International Review of African American Art17, no. 2
(2000).
Kernan, Michael. ‘‘Portraits of Her People—Historian,
Photographer and MacArthur ‘‘Genius,’’ Deborah Willis
Documents the Black Experience.’’Smithsonian31, no. 9
(2000).
Lewis, David Levering, and Deborah Willis.A Small Nation
of People: W.E.B. DuBois & African American Portraits
of Progress. New York: Amistad, 2003.
Paysour, Fleur. ‘‘Deborah Willis: Prodigiously Picturing Us
(Promoting the History of African American Photogra-
phers).’’International Review of African American Art
18, no. 1 (2001).
Willis, Deborah. Black Photographers 1840–1940: An
Illustrated Bio-Bibliography. New York and London,
1985.
Willis, Deborah.Picturing Us: African American Identity in
Photography. New York: The New Press, 1994.
Willis, Deborah.Reflections in Black: A History of Black
Photographers-1840 to the Present. New York: W.W.
Norton, 2000.
Willis, Deborah, and Carla Williams.The Black Female
Body in Photography. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 2002.
Willis, Deborah.Black: A Celebration of a Culture. Irving-
ton, NY: Hylas Publishing, 2004.
Willis, Deborah. ‘‘Visualizing Memory: Photographs and
the Art of Biography.’’American Art17, no. 1 (2003).WILLIS-KENNEDY, DEBORAH