Shawn walker

“Born and raised in Harlem, NYC, I see myself as a fine arts photographer with a documentary foundation. I look for the truth within the image, the multi-layers of existence and the ironies in our everyday lives. Working from a Black Aesthetic, my work tries to speak to everyone. For more than 50 years, I have tried to reflect on the positive aspects of my community and to see the relationships between various communities of color.

A master darkroom printer, I printed my own earlier work. Now working exclusively in digital video and photography, I strive to maintain those earlier standards. In all my work, I have let the images speak for themselves — only using color and my own individual vision to enhance them. In all cases the viewer is an integral part of the art, as he/she interacts with the image.

In these three portfolios I move from the more concrete/documentary images of the “Ritual and Spirit”/“Parade” series where everyday people get to express the significance of their ancestors and culture to the more surreal “Be-Bop” and abstract “Misterioso” series where found images call to other dimensions of being/understanding.

Finally, I strive to incorporate the spiritual past into our present, so we may learn and find alternatives to make life better: working in black and white and color, analog and digital, still and video/film media. I look into the intersections of dark and light, into the shadows that grow the seeds of existence.”

— Shawn Walker

PHASE ONE: INVENTORY

In January 2019, PCPP staff including Karen Gaines and Nicole Kaack began the process of compiling a preliminary inventory of Shawn Walker’s studio boxes, noting the scope of the archive and collection. We were assisted by NYU graduate volunteer, Lizette Terry, and our Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation Intern, Nikisha Roberts.

PHASE TWO: CATALOGUING

Beginning in March 2019, PCPP catalogued Shawn Walker’s collection of final prints spanning the 1960s to the present. In conjunction with the processing project, Lizette Terry and Walker conducted an oral history survey to trace the influences that inflected the photographic practices of the Kamoinge Workshop, a Harlem-based collective of which Walker was a founding member, as well as the impact that this group of photographers had on contemporary work.

PHASE THREE: OUTREACH

Once the cataloguing process was underway, PCPP began developmental research and outreach in search of an appropriate institution to collect, preserve, and act as a steward for the Shawn Walker archive for generations to come.

PHASE FOUR: ACQUISITION

In late 2019, the Library of Congress finalized its acquisition of work by Harlem-based photographer and Kamoinge Workshop Member, Shawn Walker. The acquisition included selections from Shawn Walker’s Print Collection and Harlem Experience Ephemera, in addition to work collected by Mr. Walker from other Kamoinge members.

PHASE FIVE: ACCESSION

Movers and representatives from the Library collected and safely transported the Walker material from New York City to the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

PHASE FIVE: ANNOUNCEMENT

The Library of Congress announced the historic acquisition of Shawn Walker’s archive, the first comprehensive collection of African-American photography in the Library’s history, in a press release published on February 19th, 2020. “Completed through both gift and purchase,” stated the Library in the release, “the acquisition marks a significant addition to the representation of African Americans’ visual culture from the past 50 years by leading African American photographers.” The acquisition was also featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, and ARTnews among other publications.

Shawn Walker on PCPP and the Library of Congress

"I started photography around ’63. I had an uncle who was a photographer so I’d been around taking pictures for a lot of years...There are certain cultural things that I have been used to since I've lived in this neighborhood that are getting displaced...So, I think it was important for people and new folks—young folks, young black folks—to see what the story was all about in [Harlem] and why did it become so important...I was trying to be the keeper of my generation. It’s always been on my mind that this [collection] needs to be someplace safe. Someplace where it can be viewed, it can be used, and it can expose the inner life of the community.” -Shawn Walker, 2020