Laylah Amatullah Barrayn

🏆 It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! We’re excited to announce the 2026 Brooklyn Arts Awards honorees: Fab 5 Freddy - @fab5freddy Laylah Amatullah Barrayn - @laylahb Safety Net Coalition, Randi Berry + Amy Schwartzman - @randib1234 This year’s honorees include a pioneer, a storyteller, and a collective rooted in community- representing the core of this year’s theme then. now. next. Join us for this celebration on May 19th! 🎉 BAA2026.eventbrite.com #brooklyn #brooklynarts #BAC60 #nyc

I’m grateful to share my essay, “The Wish to Be Seen.” Link in bio + below. In this piece, I reflect on the legacy of Omar ibn Said, the archival fragments that carry his voice, and on Senegal, the country where he was born and a land near and dear to my heart. I first learned about Omar as a late teen, eager to understand the diaspora’s histories. Returning to Fouta Toro, one of my favorite places in Senegal, was a beautiful experience, and I was honored to travel there with Dr. Kameelah Mu’Min Oseguera @drmamakam and Dr. Mamarame Seck. The photograph that anchors the essay is the first image in my self-portrait series made in Senegal. The series, Grounds of Memory, is now on view at @expressnewark + @shine_portraitstudio Many thanks to Sara Barrett, Krista Mahr, and Taylor Plett at @nytimes + @nytopinion for their thoughtful editing and for helping bring this piece into the world.” Jërëjëf to Phyllis and Eddie Coly of @diasporicsoul for the space to rest, think, and create in residency. Special thanks to @jellabiya for the beautiful red grand boubou. If the essay resonates, please share, thank you! /2025/10/26/opinion/slavery-memory-photograph-omar-ibn-said.html

***NEW BOOK ALERT*** We Are Present: 2020 in Portraits Photography by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn I am excited to share that my new photo book is available for pre-order! LINK IN BIO 📚✨ 152 pgs / 118 Color Photos / 7 x 9 Inches Hardcover, Debossed Printed Linen with Tipped-In Image ***Limited Edition: 350 Copies Available*** We Are Present: 2020 in Portraits is a year-long visual account of love, grief, vulnerability, creativity, isolation, communion, determination and faith braided within its narrative. The portraits in We Are Present distill the intimacy at play between sitter and photographer echoing the quieter stories adjacent to the main event of 2020. #photographybooks #2020 We Are Present: 2020 in Portraits was produced with the support of @magnumfoundation

📺From the culture to the community, our very own Executive Director @rasupreme + Distinguished Artist Honoree, @fab5freddy sat down with @cbsnews to discuss the impact Brooklyn Arts Council has in shaping Brooklyn! As part of our 60th anni celebration, Then.Now.Next reflects on the legacy, the present moment and what’s ahead for the next generation of creatives. We may be 60 years old but, we’re just getting started 💙✨ Full interview can be found on CBSnews.com 🔗 #BAC60 #BrooklynArtsCouncil #Brooklyn #NY #News

I received my first proclamation — during Women’s History Month, no less! I was honored with the Empowerment Award by NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams @nycpublicadvocate and NYC Comptroller Mark Levine @nyccomptroller during a beautiful evening celebrating women “Leading the Change.” It was a privilege to be recognized alongside Toñita @tonitasny of the Caribbean Social Club and so many other amazing women, with a powerful keynote from @newyorkstateag NYS Attorney General Letitia James. The proclamation describes my work as being a “pioneer through her lens, reclaiming Black photographic tradition throughout the city and around the world.” After 25 years of documenting our stories and working toward the preservation of our photographic history, it is so, very special to have my work affirmed by the city I call home. #Brooklyn, born and raised! A special thank you to my brother Faizel for being there with me, to my TOA sister @almazis4ever , and to Kashif Hussain, Deputy Public Advocate for Infrastructure & Environmental Justice, for the support. Forever #grateful 🙏🏿

It’s been a few days since the @keepersofblackphoto symposium wrapped, and as I finally sit down to rest, I’m struck by how far this idea has come. What began as a simple concept between myself and Emilie Boone has finally come to fruition, and I am overflowing with gratitude. To every single participant who said “yes” and traveled from near and far, from California and New Orleans to points across Ghana, thank you for joining us in #Accra. I’m so proud of what we achieved together. A deep thank you to @artphotofilms Anthony Artis, whose generosity and commitment to the archive and documentation are always present. Grateful to him for being so gracious in capturing these historic moments. 📷 Consider this a sneak peek; I’ll be sharing a full recap and more photos soon. Stay tuned. ✨ @nyu_accra @fordfoundation

New blog post! Through Their Lens – Laylah Amatullah Barrayn. Lessons from documentary photographer. Photography isn’t just about images — it’s about memory, presence, and preservation. Through her work documenting the African diaspora, Barrayn focuses on capturing humanity, dignity, and beauty, using photography as a way to hold history and stories in the present. ✨ Key insights from her process: • Let your curiosity guide your style — it develops through consistent practice. • Focus on stories you feel responsible to tell. • Use natural light and layered imagery to create depth and atmosphere. • Great photos happen when intention, light, and connection with your subject align. • Research, archives, and relationships are just as important as the camera itself. When creativity stalls? Walk, read, visit archives, and stay in conversation with others. Her advice to photographers: “Photograph with verbs, not nouns — decide if you’re honoring, witnessing, tracing, or questioning.”

Ask me how my #Ramadan is going, definitely can’t complain, mashaAllah. ✨ So grateful for the invitation to The Iftar Table, hosted by @theramadanedit . Thank you, Sana & Hiba, for bringing us together at @themazenyc . It was such a beautiful mix of Muslim women across media, fashion, business, and philanthropy. We were treated to a delicious salon-style supper curated by chef @tomcolicchio . Simply wonderful. Heart is full. 🌙✨ Dress by @jellabiya . 🇸🇳

We’re excited to share the full program! ✨ Join us in Accra, Ghana for To Collect & Collate: The Keepers of Black Photography (March 10–12, 2026) — a Pan-African convening bringing together archivists, artists, scholars, collectors, and cultural workers to think together about Black photographic archives: how they’re preserved, activated and circulated. The full schedule, sessions, and speaker lineup are now live at keepersofblackphoto.org. Please share widely + tag someone who should be in the room, thank you!

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, 46, professor, documentary photographer, curator, author, lover of life, woman of faith. @Ourkindofwomen : What feels different about the way you occupy space now, creatively and personally, compared to your younger years? @laylahb I feel like I’ve always taken up space. I am a Leo and I’m a little neuro spicy, so it’s always been about big visions and Audacity. When I was younger, I didn’t spend much time tracking the room or reading the room or calculating other people’s opinion about me. It didn’t even occur to me, and honestly, I genuinely assumed that we were all on the same page about the possibility of anything. I was always in my head. I was in my world. I was excited about life. I was always creating and experimenting and initiating. So I didn’t apologize for much. I chased my work. I chased my dreams. I felt like I was a true artist, and I moved through the world like it was the clearing in beloved Toni Morrison’s beloved that wide open space where black people could gather and breathe and be fully themselves. When I was younger, I believed so deeply in love in all senses of the word, and I still do. Love is romance, but also love is devotion, as friendship, as community and as a spiritual practice, and love as an ethic, love as the thing that made me generous and brave and willing to try. I still believe in love that way, and I still think it’s one of the most powerful forces that we have and love has carried me for as long as I can remember. A few months ago, I had a dream, and I’m always dreaming about the past. Is really interesting. I saw my younger self walking down the street. I was walking fast, just like a real New Yorker, and I had on this denim jacket that you that I used to wear from the gap, and it it looked like I was holding my passport photos, like I had just came from some pharmacy, getting my passport photos.. (cont in comments) 📸 @bessieakuba @ourkindofwomen Exhibit + coffee table book + an ecosystem and more coming March 8, 2026 @bessieakuba + @terrijvaughn

I had the great fortune to be commissioned by the Jazz Foundation of America / @jazzfoundationofamerica , in partnership with the Mellon Foundation / @mellonfoundation , to create portraits for the Jazz Legacies Fellowship. 🎶 For the 2026 cohort, I photographed seven of the twelve musicians: Archie Shepp @archie_shepp , Dee Alexander @deealexandermusic , Kenny Barron @kennybarron , Marilyn Crispell @marilyncrispell , Oliver Lake , Charles McPherson @charlesmcpherson1 , and Buster Williams @busterwilliamsofficial . Here are some outtakes from our portrait sessions! Listening to their life stories. Watching the way they handled what they have spent a lifetime honing, their instrument: whether it was their voice, their bow, their fingers, keys or horn. They were so careful, so mindful, there was reverence. A kind of tenderness you only learn through devotion. Being in the presence of these masters taught me that artistry, craftsmanship, and dedication is love. I was reminded of hold a gift. How to protect it. How to return to it, with joy and discipline, again and again. And, some of the musicians played for me, a concert for one! This experience made me think about how careful we should be with our own talents and our vision. How we honor what we’ve been given by practicing and staying in relationship with the work, even when no one is watching. I’m deeply grateful to the Jazz Foundation team, Veronika, Parris, and Anne, and to every musician who welcomed me into their home and into their world. Thank you to the families, too. These portraits were only possible because you made room for them, and because you shared your time, your stories, and your music with me. Thank you! 🙏🏿

A photo of me in Accra, Ghana, about 15 years ago. My trips to Ghana have always been intentional and dynamic, and I always leave with more than I arrived with. My most recent trip came by way of an invitation from Uncle James Barnor to celebrate his 95th birthday. A time was had!!! He is a national hero, and his work has profoundly shaped Ghana’s photographic history and visual landscape. On my last day in Accra, I felt so inspired that I said to myself: I want to engage more deeply around photography here. And then, an opportunity arrived, to gather the people who steward, protect, and preserve photographic archives. What better location than Accra, and through a program with my alma mater, NYU. Next month, I’m honored to convene in Accra for To Collect & Collate: The Keepers of Black Photography, March 10 - 12, 2026, co-organized with the brilliant scholar Emilie Boone, author of one of my favorite books, A Nimble Arc: James Van Der Zee and the Photographer’s Craft. I’m so excited to gather visionaries who understand that the image is evidence, and the archive is a living responsibility. And I’m deeply grateful to the Ford Foundation, who enthusiastically came on board to support this project. Everything comes together. It starts with a vision, a wish, and community. See you in Accra. 🇬🇭✨ @keepersofblackphoto @nyu_accra @fordfoundation