Changing Realities, Maria J. Hackett, 2020
CENTER FOCUS
Spring 2022
Co-Curated by Polly Irungu & Hi-ARTS, Center Focus featured the photography of seven members of Black Women Photographers. The exhibition ran from April 11-29 at Hi-ARTS and was accompanied by in-person and virtual programming. Center Focus was the first exhibition of its kind for the collective. Founded by Polly Irungu, and launched in the summer of 2020, Black Women Photographers is a global community, directory, and hub of over 1,000 Black women and non-binary identifying photographers, spanning over 46 countries and 32 U.S. states.
Featured Artists
Eliana Carter
Andrea K. Castillo
Poochie Collins
Maria J. Hackett
Myesha Evon Gardner
Ashli Owens
Edolia Stroud
Program Highlights
images by Laila A. Stevens
Partnership
Polly Irungu, Co-Curator
Polly Irungu is a multimedia journalist and the founder of Black Women Photographers, a global community and directory of 1000+ Black women and non-binary photographers launched in July 2020. As a self-taught photographer, writer, and founder, Polly’s work has been published in numerous publications, including Adobe’s Create Magazine, The New York Times, Reuters, Global Citizen, NPR, BBC News, Refinery29, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, CNN, and others.
Polly has spoken on panels for Parsons School of Design, Leica, Photoville, Twitter, NBC News, NABJ, Online News Association, and more.
In 2017, Polly completed a degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Polly has lived across various cities, from Nairobi to Topeka, Kansas to Eugene, Oregon to Washington, D.C., Little Rock, Arkansas, and ultimately to Brooklyn, New York.
