Lifestyle
‘Reflections in Black’ celebrates history of Black photography with expanded issue
Four African American women sit on the steps of a building at Atlanta University in Georgia in this 1890s photograph by Thomas E. Askew. The image is one of the hundreds included in Reflections in Black, written and edited by scholar and NYU professor Deborah Willis.
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Deborah Willis, professor and chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, has released an updated anniversary edition of Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present.
Willis: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn; Cover Image: Maud Sulter.
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Willis: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn; Cover Image: Maud Sulter.
For decades, Deborah Willis has dedicated her career to unearthing, cataloging and showcasing Black photographers and photographs of Black people. The MacArthur “Genius Award” winner is the author of a spectacular collection of books including the seminal Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present.
Twenty-five years after its publication, a new edition of Reflections in Black is out with 130 new images and a gallery show inspired by the book. In the expansion of this book, Willis considered the effects of migration and the importance of images for people forced to leave home.
“The aspect of migration is a central way of me reading these images, today there are so many people who are from the diaspora that are photographers now,” she said. “When families had to leave home, with disaster today, what do you take with you now? Photographs are what people are taking.”
Morning Edition’s Michel Martin visited Willis at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she teaches and leads the photo department.
Here are four takeaways from their conversation.
1. Willis’ upbringing shaped her love for photography
An interior view of a tobacco and newspaper store photographed by Daniel Freeman around 1917, from Reflections in Black.
Estate of Dr. James K. Hill, Washington, D.C.
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Estate of Dr. James K. Hill, Washington, D.C.
Willis grew up in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where her mother had a beauty shop and kept what Willis calls: “the Black color wheel of magazines.”
The publications included Ebony, Jet, and Tan and featured images that influenced her growing up. Her father, a policeman and tailor, was also an amateur photographer.
2. Reflections in Black started as an undergrad paper
A portrait of an unidentified woman photographed by J.P. Ball in the 1890s, from Reflections in Black.
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Willis was studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (the college merged with another institution to become the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 1985. UArts closed its doors in 2024) when she asked a professor why Black photographers were missing from the history books.
“Where are the Black photographers?” she recalled. That question morphed into the monumental project that became Reflections in Black. She began her research by reading city directories.
“Because of segregation in the 19th century, I was able to identify with the asterisk the colored photographers … I created this list of 500,” she said.
She took that list to the Schomburg Center in Harlem, where she found some of the photographers’ images and created portfolios for each one. Later, with the help of Richard Newman, her “publishing angel,” the paper she wrote as an undergraduate grew into a book.
3. Frederick Douglass understood photography as biography
Frederick Douglass was one of the most photographed people during the 19th century. The writer and abolitionist is known to have had about 160 photographs and portraits made of him.
“I believe in reading his words that photography was biography,” Willis said. “We’ve not found a photograph of him smiling.” She emphasized Douglass himself collaborated with the photographer behind the lens in part as an effort to counter degrading images of Black people.
4. Willis searched for “The Exhibit of American Negroes,” which W.E.B. Du Bois organized for the 1900 Paris Exposition
Members of the First Congregational Church in Atlanta pose outside the church in this photograph by Thomas E. Askew. The image appears in W.E.B. Du Bois’ albums of photographs of African Americans in Georgia exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle, and is included in Reflections in Black.
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Library of Congress
Wills first heard about the exhibit in the 1970s, when she went to the Library of Congress looking for photographs from it. She said staff told her the photographs didn’t exist.
Twenty years later, photographs from the exhibit were retrieved by a young Black man working in the archives. “They didn’t exist because they weren’t processed,” Willis told NPR.
Du Bois, she said, understood the importance of photography and often asked, “Why aren’t there more Black photographers, Black men studying photography?”
The digital version of this interview was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi and Danielle Scruggs.
Ariana Grande arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.
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The brightest stars in TV and film kicked off the 83rd annual Golden Globes tonight in Beverly Hills, Calif. with Ariana Grande, Noah Wyle, Teyana Taylor and George Clooney are just some the names who walked the red carpet. This year’s ceremony was hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser.
Here’s a glimpse of what some of the attendees are wearing tonight.
Michael B. Jordan
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Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Evans
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Jean Smart
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Owen Cooper
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Sara Wells and Noah Wyle
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Claire Danes
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Stellan Skarsgård and Megan Everett-Skarsgard
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Amy Poehler
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EJAE
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Amanda Anka and Jason Bateman
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Laufey
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Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons
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Lisa Ann Walter
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Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song
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Jacob Elordi
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Rose Byrne
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Kate Hudson
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Snoop Dogg
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Timothée Chalamet
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Miley Cyrus
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George Clooney and Amal Clooney
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Leonardo DiCaprio
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Michel Martin
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Steve Inskeep
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Leila Fadel
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A Martinez
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Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy
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Amanda Seyfried
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William Stanford Davis
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Tessa Thompson
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Kathy Bates
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Jayme Lawson
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Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson
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Emma Stone
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Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall
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Nischelle Turner
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Brett Goldstein
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Parker Posey
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Vince Gilligan
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Chloé Zhao
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Mark Ruffalo and Sunrise Coigney
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Hannah Einbinder
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Sheryl Lee Ralph
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Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key
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Justin Sylvester
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Judd Apatow and Lesley Mann
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Glen Powell
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Piper Curda
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Justine Lupe
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Helen Hoehne
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Natasha Rothwell
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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis
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Minnie Driver
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Orlando Bloom
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Hudson Williams
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Connor Storrie
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Erin Doherty
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Wanda Sykes
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Nikki Glaser
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Julia Roberts
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Chris Perfetti
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Rhea Seehorn
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Dakota Fanning
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Queen Latifah
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2026 Golden Globes
Nikki Glaser Shouts Out Rob Reiner …
Dons ‘Spinal Tap’ Hat at Close of Show
Published
Rob Reiner wasn’t forgotten at this year’s Golden Globe awards … because host Nikki Glaser paid tribute to him just weeks after his murder.
Here’s the deal … during the sign-off for the awards show, Nikki came onstage wearing a black and white “Spinal Tap” hat — the band which serves as the subject of Reiner’s iconic 1984 mockumentary of the same name.
Worth noting … the Golden Globes do not typically air an in memoriam — so this was the only time Reiner was mentioned at the show.
As you know … Rob and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Los Angeles home last month. Their son Nick Reiner has been arrested for murder in connection to the case.
TMZ.com
Nick’s arraignment was scheduled for last week … but, his lawyer Alan Jackson dropped out of the case — leaving Nick with a public defender and new arraignment date set for late February.
Jackson told a gaggle of reporters outside the courthouse that Nick’s not guilty … but, he simply can’t defend him. He did not provide a reason for his withdrawal.
Our new documentary “TMZ Investigates The Reiner Murders: What Really Happened” dives into Rob and Michele’s grisly deaths … as well as Nick’s history of mental health issues and even how his weight gain set him on a dangerous path.
“TMZ Investigates The Reiner Murders: What Really Happened” is now streaming on Hulu.
On-air challenge
Today’s puzzle is called “Pet Theory.” Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first word start starts PE- and the second word starts T-. (Ex. What walkways at intersections carry –> PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC)
1. Chart that lists all the chemical elements
2. Place for a partridge in “The 12 Days of Christmas”
3. Male voyeur
4. What a coach gives a team during halftime in the locker room
5. Set of questions designed to reveal your traits
6. Something combatants sign to end a war
7. Someone who works with you one-on-one with physical exercises
8. Member of the Who
9. Incisors, canines, and premolars that grow in after you’re a baby
10. Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score this at the Olympics
11. What holds the fuel in a British car
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge was a numerical one from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. Take the nine digits — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You can group some of them and add arithmetic operations to get 2011 like this: 1 + 23 ÷ 4 x 5 x 67 – 8 + 9. If you do these operations in order from left to right, you get 2011. Well, 2011 was 15 years ago. Can you group some of the digits and add arithmetic symbols in a different way to make 2026? The digits from 1 to 9 need to stay in that order. I know of two different solutions, but you need to find only one of them.
Challenge answer
12 × 34 × 5 – 6 – 7 + 8 – 9 [or] 1 + 2 + 345 × 6 – 7 × 8 + 9
Winner
Daniel Abramson of Albuquerque, N.M.
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from listener Ward Hartenstein. Think of a well-known couple whose names are often said in the order of _____ & _____. Seven letters in the names in total. Combine those two names, change an E to an S, and rearrange the result to name another famous duo who are widely known as _____ & _____.
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, January 15 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
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