I am a runner. I love to explore new towns through my morning jogs.

During an epic road trip last summer, we made a stop in Pittsburgh and my morning run took me across the very quiet Covid-era campus of Carnegie Mellon. I encountered a huge Black Lives Matter sign. Running past I looked back at it and saw, written on the reverse, 'Black Futures Matter'. This resonated. A hopeful way to amplify the BLM movement.

I am embracing that spirit by sharing something about the present and future of Black photography. We have been doing it in short form social media posts throughout the month, but wanted to go into more detail here for those that are interested in knowing more about these and one other photographers that have influenced us as corporate and executive portrait photographers.

It is inspiring to us to look at unique work from a perspective different from our own. It broadens our perspectives in what’s possible for business photography. While there might be less room for wild creativity in corporate headshot photography, looking at this work helps us think about our own work in a new way. Further, our corporate headshot subjects are diverse. Looking at work from different points of view can help us make better choices when shooting our executive portraits.

There is so much diverse and interesting work coming from Black photographers and we are excited to share what we see as contemporary voices that will be creating photography for a long time into the future. So, without further ado, here are 3 photographers we are looking at and taking inspiration from right now.

Dana Scruggs

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Dana Scruggs (https://www.danascruggs.com/) is so many things but we found her through her photography. She uses clean lines, graphic elements and dynamic compositions. Her photos of the human form are her shining hallmark and she was tapped as the first Black female photographer to shoot an athlete for ESPN Magazines Body Issue.

Ms. Scruggs has drive. While her client list now includes Vanity Fair, Glossier and GQ, it was not always so. She spent time cultivating a portfolio and, early in her career published her own SCRUGGS Magazine where both the creative and written content was all her own.

Tyler Mitchell

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Tyler Mitchel (https://www.tylermitchell.co/photography/) is a chic, stylish, inventive and clever photographer. His most recent Vogue cover photo of VP Kamala Harris stirred up some controversy. If we are being honest it is not our favorite work by him. But we know that with a high profile subject and magazine, the photographer is not always in complete control of the results.

There is so so much to see and be inspired by in Tyler Mitchel's portfolio. His work is gorgeous. He shoots in a narrative way and is excellent at capturing an identity. In his portfolio of Michaela Coel, creator of the HBO program, I May Destroy You, he captures the nature of this smart, uniquely beautiful, statuesque, unapologetically honest personality. And he does it in so many different ways. In the JW Anderson he shows his chops as a master of composition, using straight lines, and circles and streaks of light. There are muted blues against earthy browns. They are still and moving at the same time.

If you want to treat yourself further, look at Mitchell's videos. https://www.tylermitchell.co/films/ where he continues to flex his creative muscles.

Denisse Ariana Perez

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Denisse Ariana Perez (https://denissearianaphotography.com/) is both a photographer and writer. It is not hard to imagine that she would excel at both media. She enjoys how the use of multiple modes of expression to play off of each other to create something more than that one thing. You can see the poetry in Perez's images. They are enigmatic and almost challenge the viewer to fill in the story.

Perez's photographs are soft and soulful in feel. She mixes color palettes of pastels with natural earthy tones, man-made textures with those that are very much from nature. In Flowers and Water, we see a cropped image of only the subject dressed in floaty fabric holding a handful of floral stems. All disappears into green mossy water.

Inside the Afro-Punk portfolio is a series of portraits of people in meager settings. There is a portrait of a young woman sitting in simple but tall arched back chairs. They are in a sparse room with a pealing wall as background. The tone is a moody Dutch Master painting with contemporary subjects.

These photographers are all doing beautiful work that we admire. They have many working years in front of them. We are excited to see the future and where their unique perspectives take us and will continue to look to them for inspiration in the work we do as New York Corporporate and Executive headshot photographers.