photograph by valerie brayton.

i am a Black-american photographer and leatherdyke who was born and raised in sylmar, ca. i received my mfa in photography & media from california institute of the arts in 2019 and my bfa in photography from pacific northwest college of art in 2014.

my work is a love letter to light and the absence of it; shadows. i have heavily researched and challenged the concepts of home and how it dances with the ways people, places and memories are linked to it. i have made photographs for the wall street journal, substream magazine, the new york times, san francisco chronicle and others. in 2022 i was part of a package with wsj that was a pulitzer finalist.

i am currently an adjunct photography professor at cypress college and chaffey college.

when looking to commission me, i am interested in making photographs about Black mothers and their relationships with their daughters, stories about families, stories about the lgbtq+ community, artists in their workspaces, musicians in the recording studio and intimate domestic spaces.

i have shared my work in classrooms at multiple institutions including ucla and ucsb and i have made photographs for clients such as wsj, nytimes and slate magazine.

affiliates:
diversify photo
women photograph
to the front (co-founder)

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recent interviews:
Strange Fire Collective (October 2020)
Hyperallergic: At CalArts, Graduating Students Are Making Sincere and Rigorous Work (April 2019)
The Week (May 2016)

contact

email: ccolesphoto@gmail.com

instagram: @kernieflakes

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