Photo by HG Biggs.
Vanessa Charlot is an award-winning photographer whose art focuses on the interconnectedness of race, politics, culture and sexual/gender expression.
Charlot’s journey began in Miami when her mother gave her a disposable camera at the age of 12.
“Growing up in a Black community and in an immigrant community, what I knew was to go outside and take pictures. I remember at the time I didn’t know how to put a portfolio together, so I went with a little envelope to a very well-known school and showed them these pictures,” she said. “They had never seen immigrant communities and black communities being presented the way that I did, so I got accepted into the school, and my teacher gave me my first Leica.”
Charlot’s style is meant to showcase people and the world that surrounds them in their true essence, which is heavily influenced by her family roots.
“My parents are Haitian and Dominican. If you hear stories about Haiti, you get this notion that it’s just the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. But once you go to Haiti, it’s like, yes, sure, poverty exists, but so does family, legacy and tradition. That’s why I capture people the way that I do,” Charlot said.
Charlot’s passion for capturing things in their true light and creating a story for her audience has led her work to be commissioned by publications such as The New York Times, Gucci, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Oprah Magazine and many more.
Charlot was recently hired as an assistant professor of creative multimedia at the university. She teaches photojournalism and digital story production in the School of Journalism and New Media. She reflected on her transition into academics.
“It has been an interesting one. Luckily I spent a lot of time in the industry before I came to academia. So I’ve been able to have a very strong sense of self and why I do what I do, and I carried that with me into this institution, so that I have a very clear mission and why. So the transition has been good because I know why I’m here and the purpose of me being here,” she said.
Charlot believes that her style in photography manifests in her teaching style as well.
“Photography for me is a practice of deep observation. I’m very thoughtful and critical in my artistic practice just because in the arts, there’s this very single-story concept about people of color, and it is limiting,” Charlot said. “So I want to ensure that my students don’t have a single story about anybody because that limits the fact that there is this multifaceted human being that has so many aspects to them, rather than just what you see.”
Charlot hopes she can help her students see the world through this lens, but she also believes that it is important for all artists to view the world in a multifaceted way.
“As artists, we create the visual artifacts that will exist after we are no longer. Artists are the people that are thinking about society and are thinking about how they want to create things for the next generation to study. Artists are supposed to bear witness,” Charlot said.
Charlot expressed her hopes for the future of the School of Journalism and New Media.
“For the future, I hope that all creativity and individuality is not only celebrated but welcomed,” she said.
In addition to the publications she has published in, Charlot has exhibited at the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, The Women’s Museum of Costa Rica and the National Museum of Anthology in Mexico. Her work is also held in the Library of Congress Collection.
