archival impulse & poverty pornography

Ayana V. Jackson?s work explores African and African Diaspora identities through varied photographic approaches ranging from reportage and portraiture to performance and studio based practice.
Using her background in sociology, she creates bodies of work that in some cases address the history of photographic representation of the black body and in others explore the complexity and plurality of contemporary African descendent identity. In recent work she uses her own body to stage interventions that critique mid-19th and early 20th century colonial photography.
Based in Johannesburg and New York, she has exhibited her work in association with Gallery MOMO (Johannesburg, RSA), Primo Marella Gallery (Milan), San Francisco Mexican Museum (USA). She has received grants from the Marguerite Casey Foundation, supporting her participation in the 2009 Bamako African Photography Biennial. Public art exhibitions include Round 32 of Project Rowhouses in Houston?s 3rd ward (USA). Her photography has been featured in publications including the exhibition catalogue for her series African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, n.paradoxa, "Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society" (Columbia University), Art + Auction, Camera Austria, Afrique in Visu, and Dutch based ZAM magazine. She has lectured and conducted workshops at university and arts institutions across Africa and the Americas.