Top 11 Black Photographers to Follow in 2025

February marks Black History Month in the US. Join us in celebrating Black creativity, often underrepresented in photography, and check out the world's most exciting Black photographers today.

This article includes the work of:

• Brandon Holland @brandon.content

• Ronan McKenzie @ronanksm

• Braylen Dion @braylendion

• Donavan Johnson @deadbyjoy

• Jeffrey Armstrong @visionsbyjeff

• Nicky Quamina-Woo @nickywoophoto

• Nico Kartel @nicokartel

• Kendall Bessent @kendallbessent

• Michael Amofah @kvvadwo

• Shawn Pridgen @shawnmpridgen

• Trenity Thomas @504degrees

Brandon Holland

Brandon Holland @brandon.content is a self-taught photographer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He came of age in Houston, Texas, after moving in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. After school, he spent a couple of years working as a lighting technician in New York before moving back to New Orleans—where he currently resides.

For the past four or five years, he has spent his spare time chasing color and solitude—mostly concerned with the single image.

Ronan McKenzie

Ronan McKenzie @ronanksm is a multi-disciplinary artist from Walthamstow, London. Ronan has exhibited her work at spaces including Aperture Foundation, Red Hook Labs, Somerset House and The National Theatre. She is now director of HOME by Ronan Mckenzie, a multifunctional creative space. Her work has been presented on the covers of the British Journal of Photography, Garage Magazine, Teen Vogue and Creative Review, and within titles including Luncheon, Vogue, POP, i-D and Wall Street Journal.

Notable within Ronan’s practice is a sensitivity to honest, relatable emotion and the celebration of individuality. Alongside working commercially with brands including Nike, Glossier, Sephora, Universal Standard and Olay, Ronan lectures at universities and institutions. Her work is often tied together with her passion for creating more imagery of connections, relationships and Black joy, presenting the world as she would like to see it.

Braylen Dion

The work of filmmaker and photographer Braylen Dion @braylendion aims to renew the representation of Black people in media by personifying intimacy and softness. Dion’s work has recently been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Business Week, Photographic Journal, and BRICK Magazine.

His commercial work includes collaborations with Sprite, Nike, AFROPUNK and Sony Music, among others. Braylen is currently based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Donavan Johnson

Donavan Johnson @deadbyjoy, was born in San Bernardino, California, and grew up in the city of Redlands. Growing up, he would film skate videos with his friends.

After quitting skateboarding, he still had a huge passion for filming and photography. As he couldn’t afford a camera at the time, he used an iPhone 4. After a year, he bought his first camera: a Canon EOS Rebel T3i.

In the beginning, he shot a lot of his close friends and family—eventually finding a style and a way to express his vision even further with colours, and experimenting with film and video again.

Over time, he has built his portfolio working with models, unique brands and music artists.

Jeffrey Armstrong

Bronx-based photographer Jeffrey Armstrong @visionsbyjeff grew a strong passion for creating through sports. After picking up a camera in his freshman year of college, he wanted to document what makes the New York City street-ball scene—and the culture behind it—so unique.

In his shots, he tends to focus on aspects outside of just the plays of basketball, creatively looking for things that truly tell the story of street ball. A lot of his work displays heavy emotion that immediately draws you in and makes you want to go experience the culture in New York City.

Nicky Quamina-Woo

Nicky Quamina-Woo @nickywoophoto is a Black and Native Hawaiian documentary photographer, dividing her time between Southeast Asia, the African continent, and New York City. Her fascination with the tenacity of the human spirit deeply influences her approach to image-making.

Nicky Quamina-Woo's documentary work explores the transmogrified effects of trauma within communities often precipitated by the legacy of colonization. Specifically, the ways in which collective suffering and its myriad embers change the underlying ethos of groups to form something new. Adaptation, not only as a means of survival, but morphology that integrates and syncretizes with each culture. Nicky’s desire to examine these shifts is intrinsically linked to her ethnic heritage, whose parallels inspire her to dig deeper in search of human fortitude, compassion, and healing.

Nicky is the recipient of the 2020 Nikon-Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage award, as well as a Reuters Storytelling grant. In her time as an independent, her clients have included CNN, The Washington Post, Human Rights Watch, Der Spiegel, Bloomberg, Apple, Reporters Beyond Borders, The Guardian, Vogue Italia, and Marie Claire.

Nico Kartel

Nico Kartel @nicokartel is a photographer based in the Bronx, originally from West Palm Beach, Florida.

After being an amateur photographer for a couple of years, and big on the iPhone photography trend from about 2012-2014, Nico bought a Canon EOS 5D Mark II in 2017—with this camera, Nico currently works as an artist.

“My aim is to create worlds for both me and my subjects to revel in,” says Nico. “I want viewers to look at my work as an escape, something like a never-ending dream.”

Kendall Bessent

Kendall Bessent @kendallbessent, from Atlanta, Georgia, is a fine art photographer and creative director based in Brooklyn, New York.

He uses his work to communicate his perception of the world around him—whether past, present or future.

His work explores the complexities of Blackness, in a way that they are shown in their purest forms. He highlights the beauty, strength, love, and happiness that are all a part of the Black experience. He intends for his work to instil self-love and confidence in people who look like him.

Bessent describes his work as “unapologetically Black”, and loves to capture and create blatant expressions of Blackness.

Michael Amofah

Michael Amofah @kvvadwo is a Ghanaian-American visual artist and photographer based in Minneapolis.

He captures the mostly-everyday lifestyles of Black bodies against vibrant, colourful backgrounds.

His introduction to photography started through fashion and colourful attire. Mood soundtracks inspire and emotionally connect with him the most—he creates most of his visual content based on what he is feeling in the present moment.

“Photography,” says Michael, “has allowed me to meet some of the most iconic and talented creatives in the world—and I love it.”

Shawn Pridgen

Based in Brooklyn, Shawn Pridgen @shawnmpridgen is a documentary photographer who began his photographic career at the start of the Black Lives Matter protests. His imagery has since appeared in publications including Harper’s, The Guardian, Outside Magazine and The Washington Post.

He created a documentary photography small business focused on racial equity. Shawn actively contributes his work to local nonprofits, activist organisations and social-conscious athletic companies in the fight for racial justice, diversity and visibility.

Trenity Thomas

Trenity Thomas @504degrees is a self-taught photographer working in fashion, lifestyle, editorial, conceptual, sports, portraiture and nightlife photography. He has also experimented with painting and sketching since grade school.

As a photographer, Trenity uses his camera to capture the life and composition of still life around him. His photographs have a warmth to them that pulls the viewer into the scene as if they were present.

Read more interviews with inspiring photographers on the MPB Content Hub.