Marilyn Nance

Over five decades, Marilyn Nance has documented unique moments in the cultural history of the United States and the African Diaspora. A two-time finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Award in Humanistic Photography, her work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Library of Congress. Her photographs appear in numerous publications, including The World History of Photography, History of Women in Photography, and The Black Photographers Annual.

Her 2022 monograph, Last Day in Lagos, draws from her extensive archive to chronicle FESTAC 77, the Second World Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture held in Lagos, Nigeria, highlighting its sociopolitical significance and exuberant intensity.

Nance is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and is widely recognized for her meticulous archival practices and advocacy for preservation. Her guiding principles:

1) Keep the archive safe

2) Organize the archive

3) Make the archive accessible

She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.