WILLIS, Deborah 1948-

PERSONAL:

Female. Born 1948, in Philadelphia, PA; daughter of Thomas (a police officer, tailor, and deli store owner) and Ruth (a beautician) Willis; married Winston Kennedy, May 24, 1996; children: Hank Sloane Thomas. Education: Studied at Temple University, 1972; Philadelphia College of Art, B.F.A., 1975; Pratt Institute, M.F.A., 1980; City College of New York, M.A., 1986; George Mason University, Ph.D., 2003. Religion: Baptist. Hobbies and other interests: Quilting.

ADDRESSES:

Home—P.O. Box 620, Prince Street Station, New York, NY 10012. Office—New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Photography, 721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003. E-mail—deb.willis@nyu.edu.

CAREER:

Curator, photographer, professor of photography, and author. New York Public Library, New York, NY, curator, 1980-92; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, exhibition curator at Center for African-American History and Culture, beginning 1992. City University of New York, adjunct professor, 1989-90; Columbia University, New York, NY, visiting artist, 1996; Art Institute of Boston, visiting artist, 1996; Duke University Center for Documentary Studies, Lehman Brady Chair, c. 2000; Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, joint professor in documentary studies and American studies, c. 2000; Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, professor of photography and imaging. Curator of numerous exhibitions. Exhibitions: Photographic works included in collections at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Center of Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ. Artwork exhibited at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, WI; Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, NY; Texas Women's University, Denton; Walsh Library Gallery, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ; University of Maryland; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; City Gallery Chastain, Atlanta, GA; University of Connecticut, Storrs; Middleton McMillan Gallery, NC; Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY; Bowdoin College, ME; and Ft. Lewis College, CO. Solo exhibitions include traveling exhibition organized by Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, c. 2000, and Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, c. 2001.

MEMBER:

Women's Caucus of the Arts, Society of Photographers and Educators (board member, 1986-89, chair, 1994-96), College Art Association (board member, 1994-97).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Alumni Achievement Award, Pratt Institute, 1993; Infinity Award for Writing in Photography, International Center for Photography, 1995; Alumni of the Year, Philadelphia University of the Arts, 1995; MacArthur fellowship, 2000; Golden Light Photography Book of the Year.

WRITINGS:

(Author of text) Introspect: The Photography of Anthony Barboza (exhibition catalog), Studio Museum in Harlem (New York, NY), 1982.

Black Photographers, 1840-1940: An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography, Garland (New York, NY), 1985.

(With David Driskell and David Levering Lewis) Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America (exhibition catalog), introduction by Mary Schmidt Campbell, Studio Museum of Harlem (New York, NY), 1987.

(With Howard Dodson) Black Photographers Bear Witness: 100 Years of Social Protest (exhibition catalog), Williams College Museum of Art (Williamstown, MA), 1989.

An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black Photographers, 1940-1988, Garland (New York, NY), 1989.

Early Black Photographers, 1840-1940: Twenty-three Postcards, New Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Lorna Simpson, afterword by Andy Grundberg, Friends of Photography (San Francisco, CA), 1992.

(Editor) J. P. Ball, Daguerrean and Studio Photographer, Garland Publishing (New York, NY), 1993.

VanDerZee: Photographer, 1886-1983, National Portrait Gallery (Washington, DC), 1993.

Imagining Families: Images and Voices (exhibition catalog), National African-American Museum (Washington, DC), 1994.

(Editor) Picturing Us: African-American Identity in Photography, New Press (New York, NY), 1994.

(Editor, with Jane Lusaka) Visual Journal: Harlem and D.C. in the Thirties and Forties, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, DC), 1996.

Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present, W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Carla Williams) The Black Female Body: A Photographic History, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2002.

(With David Levering Lewis) A Small Nation of People: Portraits of Progress in Black America, Amistad (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributed to books, including One-Shot Harris: The Photographs of Charles "Teenie" Harris, by Stanley Crouch, Harry N. Abrams, 2002; and Small Towns, Black Lives, by Wendel A. White, Noyes Museum of Art, 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Deborah Willis is an important figure in the fields of photography, history, and African American culture. Her body of work includes creating her own photographs and photo-quilts, developing museum exhibitions, teaching photography and the history of photography, and publishing some of the first comprehensive books on African-American photography. These accomplishments earned her a MacArthur fellowship in 2000. When she began to study photography in college in the early 1970s, Willis discovered that the long history of black photography was virtually undocumented. Since that time, she has made tremendous contributions to the study of black photographers past and present through her books Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present and The Black Female Body: A Photographic History, among others.

When Willis began working as a curator at the New York Public Library in 1980, its collection of photos by African Americans was cataloged by subject. As she explained in Smithsonian, she reorganized the entire collection "to give the photographers an identity." Her subsequent work has done the same with greater and greater visibility. She was later hired by the Smithsonian Institution, where she has curated numerous exhibitions.

Among Willis's early publications is a two-volume reference work on black photographers. Black Photographers, 1840-1940: An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography, presents the work and personal history of sixty-five African-American photographers, mostly commercial portrait makers. The second volume, An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black Photographers, 1940-1988, has 177 entries and lists more than 400 photographers; Willis includes every skilled photographer she uncovered in her research. Some two-thirds of the book is comprised of photographs. Library Journal's David Bryant called it "a little-known treasure of finely honed, lovingly composed photographs." In the Wilson Library Bulletin, Marrian Parry called the two volumes "the single most important resource for the history of black photographers."

In VanDerZee: Photographer, 1886-1983, Willis reviews the work of a man considered to be the most famous African-American photographer of the twentieth century. Although he had his own photographic studio in Harlem since 1912, James VanDerZee did not become well known until 1969, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited his work. Willis offers her own essay on the photographer, as well as a biographical chapter by Roger Britt, and 125 images. In a New York Times review, Margo Jefferson called the book "beautifully printed and compiled." Writing for Library Journal, Kathleen Collins dubbed the work the "first major survey in twenty years" and praised its "excellent essays." P. C. Bunnell commented in Choice that this "important" book is "the most substantial of the monographs" available to date on VanDerZee.

As editor of Picturing Us: African-American Identity in Photography, Willis asked African-American writers academics, curators, activists, and artists to comment on the importance of photographs. Although the essays and photographs are often personal, the writers included consider broad issues such as gender, integration, skin color, and racist imagery. Not all reviewers were pleased by this blend. In American Visions, David Nicholson called the work "a curious hodgepodge." T. Cripps commented in Choice that the book is "uneven in style and content," presumably because of the editor's personal connections to the writers. Conversely, Jon Caulfield called Picturing Us "a worthwhile addition to the literature of both visual study and the American black experience" in his review for Contemporary Sociology. In Kliatt, Dorothy P. Royal commented that it is "an outstanding exploration of the different aspects of black identity." And in Belles Lettres Elizabeth Bryant remarked that "the importance of this collection … cannot be overemphasized."

When Willis published Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present, it represented more than twenty-five years of research on the subject. It was also based on a Smithsonian exhibit of the same name that became a very popular touring show. The book includes almost 600 photographs and discusses the work of hundreds of photographers, including Jules Lion, James Presley Ball, Gordon Parks, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, and VanDerZee. The range of images is diverse, extending from early daguerreotype portraits to photojournalists' pictures of civil rights events to the contemporary work of experimental artists.

Reviewers heralded Reflections in Black as a much-needed and well-crafted book. In Publishers Weekly Charlotte Abbott called it "the first comprehensive history of African-American photography" and credited the author with providing "rare and intimate visions of African-American life." Booklist's Vanessa Bush noted that Willis's "stunning" volume "conveys more than the history of black photographers. She chronicles black Americans generally." Esther Iverem described it in Washington Post Book World as "history, narrative, a personal and public record, cultural anthropology and a family album" and "a meditation on what it has meant for African Americans to see themselves." And in the Black Issues Book Review, Sandra D. Jackson judged that the author is "one of the few people to illuminate the grand contributions of blacks in the photographic medium."

The photographer's ability to denigrate or glorify a subject is the central theme in The Black Female Body: A Photographic History, which Willis authored with photographer and writer Carla Williams. The book reveals how early pictures by white photographers often showed black women as anthropological studies, erotic figures, or merchandise, and considers how this negative treatment affected the self-image of black women. These images are contrasted by nineteenth-century portraits of stylish black women and artistic compositions, as well as by contemporary images of black women by black women.

Reviewers described The Black Female Body as both an engaging intellectual exercise and a visual feast. A Publishers Weekly reviewer judged that "the book's sociological bent can be a little clinical" but concluded that it succeeds at "the unmasking of stereotypes." In the Philadelphia Inquirer Annette John-Hall was impressed by this "compelling new visual history," one that she found "takes pains … to give a fair-minded account of the ways in which black women chose to represent their bodies." Regina Woods remarked in Black Issues Book Review that the "rare and controversial photographs" are part of a book that should appeal to the "general reader, cultural historian, or photo enthusiasts." Afterimage reviewer Stephanie Dinkins concluded that the work is "perhaps most importantly … a gateway—an open invitation to the continued research of the imaging of black women in all mediums."

Critics also noted the strong reactions inspired by the photos in Black Photographers: 1840-1940. Library Journal's Shauna Frischkorn deemed that the book provides "a fascinating view into a long-neglected and even taboo subject." In SeeingBlack.com Esther Iverem commented that it contains "groundbreaking, scholarly yet accessible analysis" and warned that although the work has the heft of a "coffee table book," it is not suitable for children to look at without explanation, because of the strongly negative images it contains.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Afterimage, May, 2002, Stephanie Dinkins, review of The Black Female Body: A Photographic History, p. 19.

American Visions, October-November, 1994, p. 34.

Belles Lettres, January, 1996, Elizabeth Bryant, review of Picturing Us: African-American Identity in Photography, p. 43.

Black Issues Book Review, July, 2000, Sandra D. Jackson, review of I'll Take You There, p. 38; March-April, 2002, Regina Woods, review of The Black Female Body.

Booklist, June 1, 2000, Vanessa Bush, review of Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present, p. 1831.

Choice, January, 1994, P. C. Bunnell, review of VanDerZee: Photographer, 1886-1983, p. 773; July, 1995, T. Cripps, review of Picturing Us, p. 1721.

Contemporary Sociology, May, 1996, Jon Caulfield, review of Picturing Us, p. 403.

International Review of African-American Art, fall, 2000, Winston Kennedy, "Deborah Willis, Artist & Scholar," p. 63.

Kliatt, September, 1996, Dorothy P. Royal, review of Picturing Us, p. 30.

Library Journal, June 15, 1989, David Bryant, review of An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black Photographers, 1940-1988, p. 54; November 15, 1993, Kathleen Collins, review of VanDerZee, p. 77; October 1, 2002, Shauna Frischkorn, review of The Black Female Body, p. 93.

New York Times, October 20, 1993, Margo Jefferson, review of VanDerZee, p. 90.

Philadelphia Inquirer, February 21, 2002, Annette John-Hall, "For Love of the Body."

Publishers Weekly July 10, 2000, Charlotte Abbott, "Re-framing the Black Image," p. 17; February 4, 2002, review of The Black Female Body, p. 71.

Smithsonian, December, 2000, Michael Kernan, "Portraits of Her People," p. 32.

Washington Post Book World, July 30, 2000, Esther Iverem, review of Reflections in Black, pp. 6-7.

Wilson Library Bulletin, June, 1989, Marrian Parry, review of An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black Photographers, 1940-1988, pp. 118-119.

ONLINE

SeeingBlack.com,http://seeingblack.com/ (May 8, 2003), Esther Iverem, "Body Images, Then and Now."