Deborah Willis

Deborah Willis

Deborah Willis is Professor of Photography at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and a former Associate Director for Research and Collections at the Smithsonian’s Center for African American History & Culture. Her publications on the history of black photography have become the foundation for scholarly work in the field. In recognition of a quarter-century of documenting the black experience in photography, she was named a 2000 MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Her current exhibition at the Smithsonian, Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present, combines the work of renowned black photographers of the past with that of contemporary figures.

Updated: July 13, 2012