Beyond the Lens

Reception & Book Signing: 5:30 PM (Great Hall)
Artist Talk: 7:00 PM (Lecture Hall)

Event Description:
Join artists Dr. Deborah Willis, Jamaica Gilmer, and Kennedi Carter for an intergenerational conversation exploring the visual storytelling of Black life. This special program celebrates the recent release of the 25th Anniversary “Reframing” Edition of Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present, which chronicles the legacy and impact of Black image-makers.

The evening begins with a reception and book signing, where guests are invited to meet the artists and purchase copies of Reflections in Black (while supplies last), followed by an artists’ talk.

Moderated by Madylin Nixon-Taplet, Director of Programs at The Beautiful Project, the conversation will examine the legacy and evolution of Black photography – its history, shifting aesthetics, and the ways image-makers have carved out space for themselves and future generations.

This gathering also honors two significant milestones in creative leadership and mentorship: the 10th Anniversary of the Nasher Teen Council, of which Kennedi Carter is a proud alumna, and the 20th Anniversary of The Beautiful Project, a Durham-based arts collective founded by Jamaica Gilmer that uses unapologetic storytelling and visual arts to advance the healing and representational justice of Black girls and women.

Together, Dr. Willis, Gilmer, and Carter will explore what it means to see and be seen, and how their work continues to expand the narrative of contemporary art while inspiring the next generation of Black photographers.

Space is limited with reservations required.

Artist Bios:
Deborah Willis, Ph.D, is a celebrated photographer and historian of photography. As an artist, author, and curator, her art and research has focused on cultural histories envisioning the Black body, women, and gender. She has received MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships and is the University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Jamaica Gilmer is a relentless hope-architect, artist, and curator. Her most recent photography series, We are the Sun: A Photographic Tribute to Black Community, celebrates the intergenerational wisdom of ThirdSpace Action Lab’s Chocolate City Cleveland movement. She is the founder of The Beautiful Project (TBP) and the lead curator of TBP’s past exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Uris Center for Education, Pen, Lens, and Soul: The Story of The Beautiful Project. Her work is featured in Kleaver Cruz’s recent book, The Black Joy Project: A Literary and Visual Love Letter to How We Thrive. At the core of her organizing practice, Jamaica is committed to telling sacred stories of possibility through interdisciplinary making.

Kennedi Carter (b. 1998), is a digital media based artist, born in Charlottesville, Virginia and raised in Durham, North Carolina. Through archiving & photography, she aims to highlight the aesthetics & sociopolitical aspects of Black life as well as overlooked beauties of the Black experience: skin, texture, trauma, pleasure, love and community. Her work aims to reinvent notions of creativity and confidence in the realm of Blackness. Her work has been featured in the RISD Museum (2022), the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke (2024), Saatchi Gallery (2022 & 2024), the Harwood Museum of Art (2022), British Vogue Magazine (2020), Zeit Magazin (2021), Dazed & Confused (2024), Atmos Magazine (2025).

This program is made possible with generous support from the Sahm Family Foundation, Alice M. & J. Bruce Whelihan Fund, Tides Foundation, Triangle Community Foundation, Grant-Makers for Girls of Color, and our presenting partner, The Beautiful Project.

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