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.

Library of Congress

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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.

Inside a dim New Orleans-style bar in Hollywood, dozens of strangers mingle under the thump of pop music while nursing complimentary cocktails. Each person is sporting a name tag along with a personality sticker, or a few, that best captures their vibe. Neat freak. Plant parent. Night owl. Craft beer aficionado.

The scene reads like a friendly singles mixer, but listen to their conversations and it’s clear the chemistry they are hoping for isn’t romantic. They are here to find the perfect roommate.

Hosted by rental platform SpareRoom, the monthly “speed roommating” event connects people who are renting rooms with those who are looking for one in a low-key, in-person setting — no endless online profiles to fill out, no awkward interviews. Loosely based on speed dating, sans the timed interactions, attendees put on name tags indicating either “I need a room” or “I need a roommate” along with their ideal budget and neighborhoods. Then they wander freely. One woman passed out fliers for a furnished studio in downtown L.A. with air conditioning, a Murphy bed, an in-unit washer and dryer and streaming TV. Another woman showed people her rental on an iPad.

Pris Liora, 40, who was looking for someone to rent the extra room in her Koreatown apartment, didn’t prepare any questions for potential housemates, saying she just wanted to do a vibe check. Her only deal breakers? “No pets, no children, no cigarette smoking and no secret cocaine problem,” she says with a laugh.

With the average rent for a studio starting about $1,688 per month, $2,166 for a one-bedroom apartment and roughly $2,983 for a two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, according to Apartments.com, more people are embracing shared living arrangements. Rupert Hunt, founder and CEO of SpareRoom, says they’re doing so not only to cut expenses, but also to foster community. The company’s mixers can help spark those connections, he believes — they’ve been hosting speed roommating events in L.A. since June, following successful events in London, San Francisco and New York.

“There’s something so immediate about the event,” says Rupert Hunt, founder and CEO of SpareRoom.

(Kendra Frankle / For The Times)

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“There’s something so immediate about the event,” Hunt says. “You meet 10 people in the time it would take you to meet one the traditional way.”

Hunt even found a housemate for himself at one of the mixers. “I love sharing,” says Hunt, who notoriously rented out two rooms in his New York City apartment for just $1. “I think I’m a better version of myself. I think I get a bit lazy if I’m living on my own.”

At the event, Aeris DeLeon, who was wearing a sticker with the phrase “foodie,” says her mother was the person who told her about the speed roommating event. The 25-year-old was temporarily living in Bakersfield but recently moved back home to L.A.

“It was just dead over there and I was just home sick, and it wasn’t really working out for me,” she says.

Upon arrival, attendees can pick out personality stickers with phrases like coffee addict, plant lover and early bird. (Kendra Frankle / For The Times)

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She decided to attend the event because it’s more “personable than just going on Craigslist or Facebook, and it’s the best [way] to weed out scammers,” she says. Her mission was to find an apartment that cost $1,300 a month max with someone preferably close in age.

James Caton, 68, was just getting started in his search for a room. After learning that his apartment building — where he’s lived for nearly a decade — might be sold, he jumped into action.

“To me, as soon as you find out, it’s better to go ahead and start looking for something,” says Caton, who attended the mixer with his childhood friend who was looking to rent a room.

SpareRoom’s speed roommating events are free with an RSVP, and each person receives two complimentary drinks along with a one month trial of SpareRoom premium.

Speed roommating is free to attend and comes with complimentary drinks.

(Kendra Frankle / For The Times)

Even if attendees didn’t find a roommate at the event, several of them continued their conversations late into the evening. Some even stayed for karaoke at the bar. It seemed that in a world where talking about finances can be seen as taboo, having a space to openly discuss rent prices, how to deal with nightmare landlords and housemates and other grievances was its own win, a moment when they could feel a bit less alone.

This week’s show was recorded in Chicago with host Peter Sagal, judge and scorekeeper Bill Kurtis, Not My Job guests Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper, and panelists Joyelle Nicole Johnson, Faith Salie, and Zach Zimmerman. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.

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Not My Job: The 4th generation owners of the legendary Russ & Daughters answer questions about Harry Houdini

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Panel Questions

Small, But Mighty; An Anti-Heist; Wool Grindrs

Limericks

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Predictions

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