Bradshaw, Whitney

American, b.1969

BiographyWhitney Bradshaw is a Chicago-based artist, activist, educator, and former curator and social worker. Many of her photographic projects aim to show women, wholly, by photographing them in a safe and empowering space. Bradshaw’s project Scars initiated from the personal tragedy of a close friend who survived a fire, and whose scars the artists came to see as symbols of strength and perseverance. After these intimate pieces were exhibited, the project grew to depict the physical scarring from life-changing events of eight other subjects. The images touch on the greater theme of human experiences that alter us in physical, emotional, or spiritual ways.
In response to the 2016 Presidential election and a long global history of the silencing of women, Bradshaw’s ongoing intersectional feminist social project, titled OUTCRY, highlights women expressing anger, turmoil, frustration, and even devastation. With each portrait session, some individually and some done with groups of strangers, the women are given space to scream and truly embrace their emotions, rather than feeling vilified for or denied compassion.
Whitney Bradshaw was the chair of the visual art conservatory at the Chicago High School for the Arts for 10 years. Prior to that, she was the curator for the renowned LaSalle Bank Photography Collection and later the Bank of America Collection. In addition, Bradshaw was an adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago. Her photographs have been widely exhibited across the United States and in Zurich. She has had solo shows at the DePaul Art Museum, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Wave Pool Contemporary Art Fulfillment Center, McCormick Gallery, the Tarble Arts Center at EIU, Adler University, Villanova University, and more. Her work has been included in several group shows including Director’s Choice PhotoSchweiz 2021, Female in Focus 2020, Dock6 Design + Art 13 2020, Well Behaved Women 2020 at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, and In a Time of Change, 2021 with SaveArtSpace + Colorado Photographic Arts Center. Her photographs can be found in the permanent collections of the DePaul Art Museum, Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern School of Law, and the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell collection, and have been published in the New York Times, the LA Times, Time Out New York, and Vogue.