DC.004 → The Institute of Black Imagination.

Client: The Ancestors
Role: Founder, CEO, Creative Director
Location: Global
Date: 2019-Present

→ The Institute of Black Imagination → The Archive.

Originating as a library housing the personal archives of the iconic artist Geoffrey Holder, the institute highlights the blueprint for creativity left behind via his archive. We aim to create a pathway for self-actualization and dialogue surrounding the concept of the Black imagination—an extraordinary force that transcends boundaries and ignites the spirits of individuals and communities.

Below is a sampling of over 2,000 books the IBI has acquired from the Holder Estate. In 2023, the insitute acquired an addtional 1,700 titles from the estate of former Vogue Creative Director, Andre Leon Talley.

View the entire collection here.

→ The Institute of Black Imagination → Podcast.

Launched in 2020, The Institute of Black Imagination podcast features conversations with “a tribe of mentors from the pool of Black genius.” The IBI Podcast functions as an oral history archive, capturing the stories and journeys of the bold-faced and lesser-known names of the diaspora, capturing them in their own words, for future. generations.

Featured guests include André Leon Talley, Black Thought, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Kerby Jean-Raymond, Estelle, Sister Elaine Brown, Bethann Hardison, Hank Willis Thomas, Timnit Gebru, and more.

→ The Institute of Black Imagination → IBI Digital.

A gamified, mobile-native product, IBI Digital is designed to engage the user by bringing them into the present moment with a simple puzzle that unlocks a galaxy of inspirational books, texts, videos, images and projects from throughout the diaspora. IBI Digital is Black imagination and inspiration in your pocket. Designed by a team of sixteen working remotely across New York, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, Lagos and Kampala, IBI Digital is truly a product of Decentralized Blackness, one of the IBI's "Lexicon of Values."

→ The Institute of Black Imagination → IBI Fellowship.

Motion rendering by IBI Fellow Adam Saleh.

The IBI Fellowship provides "pre-seed capital" to empower early-career individuals to explore diverse projects, experience new geographic horizons, and refine their global perspective. Embracing a culture of agile creativity and fearless experimentation, the program catalyzes personal growth by immersing fellows in various projects that impart profound insights into strengths, weaknesses, and the mechanics of the Black Imagination.

DC.002 → In America: An Anthology of Fashion.

Client: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Work: Photographer, Creative Direction
Location: New York City
Date: 2022

Commissoned by Andrew Bolton, Curator-in-Chief of the Costume Institute, a series of images were created that paired the fashion object with the built environment, creating a collection of surrealist tablaus.

Image Reference Gallery.

DC.002 → Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Client: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Work: Photographer, Creative Direction
Location: New York City
Date: 2021-2024

DC.002 → Adobe Lightroom Presets.

Client: Adobe, Inc.
Work: Technologist, Photographer
Location: New York City
Date: 2021

Over a series of months, I worked with the Lightroom team to design a suite of presets that centered brown skin How can we leverage data and design to allow for others to be seen, and thereby enhanced?

DC.001 → Viola Davis 4 Vanity Fair

Client: Vanity Fair
Role: Photographer, Creative Direction
Location: New York City
Date: 2020

Image Reference Gallery.