Deborah Willis Celebrates 25 Years of ‘Reflections in Black’

Deborah Willis isn’t just a photographer, curator, and educator; she’s also an excavator, unearthing a visual testimony of Black life.

Twenty-five years ago, she wrote the groundbreaking Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present, a critical anthology of Black American photographers who reshaped the medium shortly after its advent. Now, the release of a new edition of the book, out in November , coincides with an exhibition, “Reflections in Black: A Reframing,” divided between two public galleries on NYU’s campus, where Willis has long been a professor.

Ahead of the exhibition, I sat down with Dr. Willis to discuss the 25th anniversary of her seminal book, the show, and the centrality of Black love within her oeuvre.

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