Jackson, Ayana V.

Filmmaker and photographer Ayana V. Jackson explores the complicated histories of photography and Black identity, as well as the fraught connection between the two. According to Jackson, she uses “performance-based and studio-based portraiture” in her work, which often includes herself as subject. With a close focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Jackson’s work questions gender- and ethnicity-based stereotypes and their effects on people of color. Her work is held in the permanent collections of The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Princeton University, NJ; and the Newark Museum, NJ; among others.