About

Photo by Muhammad-Taha Ibrahim / Unsplash

We champion Black photographers

"The Black gaze is not simply a way of seeing Black people. It is a mode of looking with and through Blackness... A Black gaze refuses the terms by which we are told to see and be seen."

— Tina M. Campt

We believe photography cannot fully understand itself without the contributions, perspectives, and ways of seeing brought by Black photographers.

Yet despite their influence on the medium, the contributions of Black photographers remain too often overlooked, underrepresented, or misunderstood.

Our aim is not simply to celebrate Black photographers.

It is to help build a fuller understanding of photography itself. Black photographers are not on the margins of photography.

They are essential to it.

What we do

We document Black photographic thought.
We preserve Black photographic memory.
We challenge incomplete histories of photography.
We expand understanding of the photographers shaping the medium.

Who we mean by Black

"Blackness is not a matter of biology or genealogy. It’s a matter of belonging."

— Dr. Yaba Blay

At theBLKGZE, Blackness is not a tick box. It is lived. Layered. Expansive.

We understand Blackness as something shaped by history, culture, memory, community, and experience. Not something fixed, but something felt, practised, and affirmed.

This is a space for the many histories, cultures, communities, and ways of being that exist within Blackness.

If you live it, feel it, or carry it, this space is yours.