8 Black Female Photographers to Watch in 2023

On the occasion of Black History Month, we asked Black Women Photographers' founder Polly Irungu to introduce us to the work of creatives from their platform you should discover and support.

Black History Month (BHM) is a yearly initiative that originated in the United States, conceived for recognising people and events linked to the history and the heritage of the African diaspora. With the objective to honour and promote black creatives, for this year's BHM we talked with Polly Irungu founder of Black Women Photographers. Her platform is fighting for a more fair photographic scene by encouraging inclusive hiring practices with their social tag #HireBlackWomenPhotographers. From political journalism to fine art, from self-representation to documentary, these 8 photographers remind us of the importance of telling a story from multiple perspectives.

Dawn Bangi

21-year-old Ugandan photographer based in Northern Virginia, USA. She seeks to explore familiarity, intimacy, and vulnerability through various mediums, including painting and photography. She is a college junior pursuing a degree in Health Sciences and French/Francophone studies.

Saida Blair

Photographer and oral historian. She uses a mixture of contemporary and archival images from various timelines to create a dynamic narrative of the past. Born and raised in Harlem, storytelling is instrumental to Blair’s identity. As a Black woman of Afro-Caribbean descent, the tradition of passing down information and lessons through storytelling is engraved in her culture. This is a critical idea that pushes her work as a storyteller. Using her passion for art, Blair creates conversations centering on topics and events that affect her and her community. Saida holds a BFA in Photography and Art History from SUNY Purchase. She is currently a MA candidate in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jayde Gibbons

Bermudian photographer who focuses her lens on her island's culture and people. Her main interest is showcasing Bermuda underlying culture through a personable perspective instead of the traditional perfect pink sand beaches and pristine waterscape imagery we have of the country. Her work My Negus For Real is an ongoing series that explores Black working class males in Bermuda.

Néhémie Lemal

25-year-old French director and cinematographer based in Paris. After training in communication arts and cinema, she started directing in 2019 the short film "On ne peut plus rien dire," a documentary about her own experience of racism. Her work focuses on highlighting the struggles and strengths of underrepresented groups. She started her creative journey at a young age and has since developed her craft, with her short films and photography gaining international recognition. She uses her observation skills to accurately capture the social phenomena and groups she studies, with her recent work focusing on the gentrification of underprivileged areas in Lyon.

Brianna Roye

Specializing in portraiture. A graduate of Humber’s photography program, she has accumulated six years of experience, during which she has extended her lens to Adidas and Converse, and had her work featured in publications like Macleans, Globe and Mail, GQ, The New Yorker, and West End Phoenix. Inspired by her Jamaican roots, she uses her ongoing project, Out of Many, One People to chronicle portraits of queer, Afro-Caribbean people. Using intention as a guiding principle, she strives towards a level of organicness in her imagery. “I try to take photos of people as they are. I like to capture people’s beauty and essence in as much of an honest way as I can,” she says. Hailing from Toronto’s west end, Roye is passionate about using her talent to tell stories and document underrepresented communities.

Rachel Seidu

Lagos-based, Nigerian visual artist working across photography and film to create intimate, emotive portraits reflecting diverse stories and realities. Her practice involves a technical exploration of shadows, contrast, and natural lighting experimentation. In 2022, Rachel photographed the cover of the 2022 edition of We Need New Names, the Booker-shortlisted novel by Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo. She was also shortlisted for the James Barnor and Yaa Asantewaa Prize.

Tiffany Sutton

Her work is rooted in narrative portraiture, family vernacular, and candid documentary photography. Sutton repeatedly creates photographs of selfhood and personal landscape, drawing on her experiences and widespread emotions. Her static photographic images were enlivened by abstract multiple exposed portraits of friends, herself, again, her mother. She aims to capture the intensity and the intellectual and emotional imprint of her sitters and ultimately explore the possibility of multiple meanings, dual perceptions, and the limitlessness of the seemingly binary. Sutton’s work allows viewers to consider, honor, and appreciate Black women and femme bodies. These works depict bodies in movement, space, and as a unity inside Blackness.

Kyna Uwaeme

Washington DC-based photographer. Forcing herself to be present in the moment and aware of her surroundings, she's always looking for ways in which she can help her community progress through storytelling and images. Growing up in a somewhat reserved traditional Nigerian household, art or expression was not encouraged. Photography has allowed Uwaeme to have a voice within society and be a representative for others, and with that, she hopes to create a meaningful impact in the world.

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Polly Irungu is a multimedia journalist, digital editor, self-taught photographer and founder of Black Women Photographers. As a photographer, Polly’s work has been published in numerous publications, including BBC News, NPR, Refinery29, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, CNN, HuffPost, OkayPlayer, OkayAfrica, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Black Women Photographers aims to disrupt the notion that it is difficult to discover and commission black creatives. Launched in July of 2020 by Polly Irungu, Black Women Photographers (BWP) is a global community of over 1,000 active members from around the world. Through honest dialogue via social conversations and workshops, the platform seeks to ensure that more Black women and non-binary photographers are empowered to make the industry as colorful as it ought to be. Doing so by supporting their members through online and in-person exhibitions, events, webinars, educational programs, and annual grant funds with Nikon Inc, as well as sharing and promoting their work in an active database of photo editors, directors, curators, and art buyers.

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This article is part of the work PhMuseum has started in the last few years to support and promote underrepresented photographers as well as reignite the debate on gender and racial equality in our industry. Our dedicated initiatives include an annual Grant and several collaborations such as our online exhibition in partnership with MFON, IWMF and BWP, a work that has included also the Prize in collaboration with African Artists’ Foundation.

We're always working to improve our knowledge of projects from under-represented photographers in the industry. If you are a photographer or artist please do create a free PhMuseum account and upload your projects. You can also get in touch with us at info@phmuseum.com