Based on her instantly recognizable work, Lawson belongs to a short list of photographers who in their commitment to the Black image both as a document and as an archive, have created a distinctive signature style. Born 1979 in Rochester (NY), Lawson hails from a family for whom photography has long served as a craft, a source of livelihood or, intermittently, both. Her father, the family photographer, worked for Xerox and her mother for Kodak in Rochester, New York, where Lawson grew up. Her grandmother cleaned the home of George Eastman, who invented and mainstreamed the use of roll film. http://griotmag.com/en/centropy-deana-lawson-exhibition/ Image: Chief, 2019 ©Deana Lawson & Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York