Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers: 1840 to the Present

SoHarlem is proud to present Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers: 1840 to the Present, 2026 American Book Winner Deborah Willis in Conversation with Adama Delphine Fawundu.

Deborah Willis, Ph.D., is a University Professor and Chair of the Dept of Photography & Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she also directs the Center for Black Visual Culture. Willis is a 2026 American Book Award winner, a MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Cohen Fellow, an acclaimed artist, and one of the nation’s foremost historians of Black photography and visual culture. Her widely celebrated publications include Posing Beauty and the NAACP Image Award–winning Envisioning Emancipation. She sits on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves as Board Chair of the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Adama Delphine Fawundu is a first generation visual artist born in Brooklyn, NY with heritage from Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea, West Africa. Professor Fawundu is a co-author/editor of the critically acclaimed book MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. This book features over 100 women photographers of African descent from around the globe. Fawundu was featured in the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary film, In Our Mother’s Garden directed by Shantrelle P. Lewis. Her awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship, Catchlight Fellowship, Rema Hort Mann Artist Grant as well as the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship amongst other awards. She received her MFA from Columbia University. Her works can be found in the the collections at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Newark Museum of Art, Princeton University Museum, Bryn Mawr College, The Brooklyn Historical Society, The Norton Museum of Art, The David C. Driskell Center (University of Maryland), The Petrucci Family Foundation as well as private collections.

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