# Nona Faustine

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{{Short description|American photographer and visual artist (1977–2025)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = 
| image            = 
| birth_date       = {{birth date text|1977}}
| birth_place      = New York City, U.S.
| death_date       = {{Death date and given age|2025|03|20|48}}
| death_place      = 
| alma_mater       = {{Plainlist|
* [School of Visual Arts](/source/School_of_Visual_Arts)
* [International Center of Photography](/source/International_Center_of_Photography) at [Bard College](/source/Bard_College)
}}
| children         = 1
}}

'''Nona Faustine''' (1977 – March 20, 2025) was an American photographer and visual artist. Her work focused on history, [identity](/source/Identity_(social_science)), representation, and what it means to be a woman in the 21st century.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://artspacenewhaven.org/exhibitions/nona-faustine/ |title=Nona Faustine |website=artspacenewhaven.org |access-date=March 2, 2019}}</ref> Her artwork is in the collection of the [Brooklyn Museum](/source/Brooklyn_Museum)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brooklyn Museum |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/224317 |website=www.brooklynmuseum.org |access-date=May 4, 2020}}</ref> and the [Carnegie Museum](/source/Carnegie_Museum_of_Art).<ref>{{Cite web |title=CMOA Collection |url=https://collection.cmoa.org/?creator=Nona%20Faustine&page=1&perPage=10 |website=collection.cmoa.org |language=en |access-date=May 4, 2020}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Nona Faustine was born in 1977 in [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn), New York, and raised in [Crown Heights](/source/Crown_Heights%2C_Brooklyn).<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kim |first=Demie |date=December 26, 2016 |title=New York Artist Nona Faustine Exposes the City's Slaveholding Past |url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-new-york-artist-nona-faustine-exposes-city-slaveholding-past |access-date=March 2, 2019 |website=Artsy |language=en}}</ref> Her parents came to the city from North Carolina.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Nona Faustine by Carla J. Williams |url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2024/03/15/nona-faustine-carla-j-williams/ |access-date=March 24, 2025 |website=BOMB Magazine |language=en}}</ref> Faustine was introduced to photography as a child. Her father and uncle were amateur photographers, and Faustine's first camera was a gift from her uncle.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=Nona Faustine's Nude Self Portraits Expose New York's History of Slavery |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/nona-faustines-nude-self-portraits-expose-new-yorks-history-of-slavery/ |access-date=November 28, 2016 |newspaper=Broadly |language=en-US}}</ref>

Faustine was initially inspired to become a photographer by a series of ''[Time Life](/source/Time_Life)'' books. She was influenced by [Diane Arbus](/source/Diane_Arbus), [Richard Avedon](/source/Richard_Avedon), and photojournalist [Ernst Haas](/source/Ernst_Haas).<ref name=":0"/> However, at a young age Faustine struggled to find herself in the histories of photography she encountered, which focused on photographers who were disproportionately male and white.<ref name=":0" />

She graduated with a [B.F.A. degree](/source/BFA_degree) in photography from the [School of Visual Arts](/source/School_of_Visual_Arts) in New York City in 1997, and an [M.F.A. degree](/source/M.F.A._degree) in 2013 from the [International Center of Photography](/source/International_Center_of_Photography) at [Bard College](/source/Bard_College).<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Pontone |first=Maya |date=March 23, 2025 |title=Nona Faustine, Whose Defiant Self-Portraits Confronted Centuries of Violence, Dies at 48 |url=https://hyperallergic.com/998094/nona-faustine-whose-defiant-self-portraits-confronted-centuries-of-violence-dies-at-48/ |access-date=March 24, 2025 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=» "Nona Faustine," The Whiteness Issue. |url=https://theracialimaginary.org/issue/the-whiteness-issue/nona-faustine/ |access-date=March 2, 2019 |website=theracialimaginary.org |archive-date=March 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043729/https://theracialimaginary.org/issue/the-whiteness-issue/nona-faustine/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Career ==
As an undergraduate, Faustine worked primarily in documentary photography. She shot one series, "Young Mothers", of young women she knew through her family, friends, and her neighborhood.<ref name=":3" /> She also had an interest in [landscape photography](/source/landscape_photography), which she later utilized in "White Shoes".<ref name=":3" /> As an MFA student, Faustine began to move away from the traditional [documentary](/source/Documentary_photography) model, saying in 2016, "It just didn't work for me anymore. I wanted more room to play with communication. Conceptual works appealed to me".<ref name=":0" /> Faustine's work also looked at broader questions of American history, as in a photo series that placed national landmarks (such as the [Lincoln Memorial](/source/Lincoln_Memorial) and the [Statue of Liberty](/source/Statue_of_Liberty)) behind bars.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=MONUMENTAL: Nona Faustine Reveals Historical DistortionS In Public Space |url=https://archive.pinupmagazine.org/articles/article-nona-faustine-my-country-two-palms-mekala-rajagopal |access-date=March 27, 2025 |website=archive.pinupmagazine.org |language=en}}</ref> Faustine's work focused primarily on the experiences of Black women, often through the medium of self-portraitry. For example, her 2016 portrait ''Say Her Name'', photographed in her family's apartment in [Flatbush](/source/Flatbush), was created as a tribute to [Sandra Bland](/source/Sandra_Bland), a Black woman who died in police custody in 2015.<ref name=":1" />

=== Mitochondria (begun 2008) ===
In the series "Mitochondria", a reference to [mitochondrial DNA](/source/mitochondrial_DNA), which is fully inherited from the mother, Faustine photographed herself, her mother, her sister, and her daughter in their shared home in Brooklyn, NY. The work illuminates both the strength of their familial bond and their interdependent destinies. The ''[New York Times](/source/New_York_Times)''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Berger |first=Maurice |date=July 11, 2017 |title=Three Generations of Black Women in Family Photos |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/in-brooklyn-three-generations-in-family-photos-nona-faustine/ |access-date=December 3, 2022 |website=Lens Blog |language=en}}</ref> observed that the series is "a celebration of the power of African American women to nurture family, even in the direst circumstances. The series’ title refers to the mitochondrial DNA&nbsp;... Through this scientific metaphor, the series commemorates the continuity of African American womanhood from one generation to another&nbsp;... The series also underscores the role played by women of color in the struggle for equality and justice. Historically, [African American](/source/African_American) women were marginalized within mainstream feminism. Nevertheless, they were able to turn to and embolden each other in the face of prejudice, even before the advent of the modern feminist movement".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/in-brooklyn-three-generations-in-family-photos-nona-faustine/ |title="In Brooklyn, Three Generations of Family Photos" |website=New York Times |date=July 11, 2017 |access-date=July 11, 2017}}</ref>

=== ''My Country'' (2016) ===
''My Country'' was Faustine's first solo exhibition, held at Baxter St. Camera Club of New York from  December 8, 2016, to January 14, 2017.<ref name="baxterst">{{Cite news |date=November 7, 2016 |title=Nona Faustine Exhibition |url=http://www.baxterst.org/exhibitions-3/nona-faustine-exhibition/ |access-date=March 12, 2017 |work=Baxter St |language=en-US}}</ref> The exhibition presented works from the ''White Shoes'' series, as well as a series of photographs of monuments. The monuments, including the [Statue of Liberty](/source/Statue_of_Liberty) and [The Lincoln Memorial](/source/The_Lincoln_Memorial), are pictured with a black line slicing through the image. [The Village Voice](/source/The_Village_Voice) wrote that her work was "a frank rendering of America's disgraceful and all-too-buried legacy of marginalization" and explained the impact of the monument photographs: "the graphic interruption stands for the scores of mistreated Americans for whom such structures and their supposed representation of the common good have remained inaccessible".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nona Faustine: My Country |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/event/nona-faustine-my-country-9527340 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105190448/http://www.villagevoice.com/event/nona-faustine-my-country-9527340 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 5, 2017 |access-date=March 11, 2017 |website=Village Voice}}</ref>

=== ''White Shoes'' (2012–2021) ===
[[File:From Her Body Sprang Their Greatest Wealth 2013 Nona Faustine.jpeg|thumb|right|''From Her Body Sprang Their Greatest Wealth'' (2013), from the series ''White Shoes'', at the [National Gallery of Art](/source/National_Gallery_of_Art)'s showing of ''[Afro-Atlantic Histories](/source/Afro-Atlantic_Histories)'' in [Washington, DC](/source/Washington%2C_DC) in 2022]]

The White Shoes series portrays the [history of slavery in New York](/source/history_of_slavery_in_New_York) through a series of nude self-portraits taken in former locations significant to the slave trade. The series also engages with representation of the black female body.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":2" /> Faustine first had the idea for the series in 1991, during the excavation of the [African Burial Ground](/source/African_Burial_Ground) in Manhattan.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smyth |first=Diane |title=Nona Faustine unpacks the dark and hidden history of America |url=https://www.1854.photography/2025/03/nona-faustine-white-shoes/ |access-date=March 24, 2025 |website=1854 Photography |language=en-GB}}</ref> She began to work on "White Shoes" as a graduate student. Influenced by [Lorna Simpson](/source/Lorna_Simpson) and [Carrie Mae Weems](/source/Carrie_Mae_Weems), Faustine began the series as her thesis project in 2012 and continued to add to it over the subsequent three years.<ref name=":0" /> This work is based on Faustine's research on the history of slavery in the five boroughs of New York City, including slave burial grounds, slave markets, slave owning farms, and the landing spots of slave ships. Standing in white shoes, she reminds viewers how often African-Americans must adopt white culture. Posing on a wooden box at locations around New York where slaves were once sold, "baring her flesh to history, she conveys the most fundamental horror of the [slave trade](/source/History_of_slavery), the way it reduced people to mere bodies, machines of muscle."<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2015/aug/05/the-scars-of-america-nude-artist-slavery-sites-nona-faustine |title=The scars of America: why a nude artist is taking a stand at slavery sites |last=Jones |first=Jonathan |date=August 5, 2015 |work=The Guardian |access-date=March 11, 2017 |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Her 2016 exhibition at [Smack Mellon](/source/Smack_Mellon) was reviewed extensively. ''The New Yorker''{{'}}s Alexandra Schwartz wrote, "Faustine's photos serve to mark the places that belong to a history too often hidden from view, whether by design, or neglect, or the ever-frenetic pace of change inherent to life in New York."<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=December 28, 2016 |title=A Living Monument to the Ghosts of American Slavery |url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-living-monument-to-the-ghosts-of-american-slavery |access-date=March 11, 2017 |magazine=[The New Yorker](/source/The_New_Yorker)}}</ref> In 2024, the series was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum.<ref name=":2" />

== Personal life and death ==
Faustine was a single mother to one daughter, born in the late 2000s.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Ashcraft |first=Kady Ruth |date=March 7, 2024 |title=In 'White Shoes,' Nona Faustine's New York |url=https://www.thecut.com/article/artist-nona-faustine-white-shoes-brooklyn-museum.html |access-date=March 24, 2025 |website=The Cut |language=en}}</ref> According to the DNA-testing company [African Ancestry](/source/African_Ancestry_Inc.), Faustine found she had [Bubi](/source/Bubi_people), [Hausa](/source/Hausa_people), [Fulani](/source/Fulani), and [Tikar](/source/Tikar) heritage from her mother's side, and [Mandinka](/source/Mandinka_people) and Nigerian [Yoruba](/source/Yoruba_people) heritage on her father's side.<ref name=":3" /> Faustine died on March 20, 2025, at the age of 48.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Greenberger |first=Alex |date=March 21, 2025 |title=Nona Faustine, Photographer Who Pictured Enslavement's Unseen Histories and Black Women's Perseverance, Dies at 48 |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/nona-faustine-photographer-dead-white-shoes-1234736316/ |access-date=March 21, 2025 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Exhibitions ==
=== Solo exhibitions ===
* ''My Country'', Baxter St. Camera Club (2016–2017)<ref name="baxterst" />
* ''Making Them Known: Nona Faustine'', [Artspace, New Haven](/source/Artspace%2C_New_Haven), CT, 2017<ref>{{Cite web |title=Making Them Known Artspace |url=https://artspacenewhaven.org/exhibitions/nona-faustine/curator/ |website=[Artspace, New Haven](/source/Artspace%2C_New_Haven)}}</ref>
* ''Mitochondria'', Higher Pictures, Brooklyn, New York, 2021<ref>{{Cite web |last=Curl |first=Julia |date=June 26, 2021 |title=Nona Faustine's Family Album |url=https://hyperallergic.com/658114/nona-faustine-family-album/ |access-date=March 24, 2025 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US}}</ref>
* ''White Shoes'', [Brooklyn Museum](/source/Brooklyn_Museum), New York, 2024<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sneed |first=Pamela |title=Nona Faustine |url=https://4columns.org/sneed-pamela/nona-faustine |access-date=March 24, 2025 |website=4columns.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Thomas |first=Alexandra M. |date=June 18, 2024 |title=Nona Faustine Unearths New York's Buried History of Slavery |url=https://hyperallergic.com/926917/nona-faustine-unearths-new-york-buried-history-of-slavery-white-shoes-brooklyn-museum/ |access-date=March 24, 2025 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Pockros |first=Alana |date=March 7, 2024 |title=Nona Faustine: She's Putting Herself in Their Places |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/07/arts/nona-faustine.html |access-date=March 24, 2025 |work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

=== Group exhibitions ===
* ''The Outwin American Portraiture Today'', 2019, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC<ref>{{cite web |title=The Outwin |url=https://portraitcompetition.si.edu/exhibition/2019-outwin-boochever-portrait-competition/ |publisher=[Smithsonian Institution](/source/Smithsonian_Institution) |access-date=March 28, 2025 |date=2019}}</ref>
* ''Perilous Bodies'', [Ford Foundation](/source/Ford_Foundation), NY, 2019<ref>{{Cite press release |url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ford-foundation-announces-opening-of-its-art-gallery-focused-on-social-justice-offers-details-of-inaugural-exhibitions-300791358.html |title=Ford Foundation Announces Opening of Its Art Gallery Focused on Social Justice, Offers Details of Inaugural Exhibitions |last=Foundation |first=Ford |website=www.prnewswire.com |language=en |access-date=March 2, 2019}}</ref>
* ''Slavery in the Hands of Harvard'', [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University), 2019<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://hyperallergic.com/485405/harvards-complicit-history-with-slavery/ |title=Harvard's Complicit History with Slavery |date=February 26, 2019 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US |access-date=March 2, 2019}}</ref>
* ''Refraction: New Photography of Africa and Its Diaspora'', Steven Kasher Gallery, 2018<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://museemagazine.com/culture/2018/4/27/exhibition-review-refraction-new-photography-of-africa-and-its-diaspora-april-19-june-2 |title=Exhibition Review: Refraction: New Photography of Africa and its Diaspora |date=April 27, 2018 |work=Musee |access-date=June 7, 2018 |language=en-US}}</ref>
* ''MAMI'', Knockdown Center, Maspeth, NY 2016<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://knockdown.center/event/mami/ |title=MAMI |work=The Knockdown Center |access-date=March 12, 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=March 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313043300/http://knockdown.center/event/mami/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''Race&Revolution'', [Governors Island](/source/Governors_Island), NY 2016<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://govisland.com/exhibitions/race-revolution-exploring-racial-injustices-through-art |title=Race & Revolution: Exploring Racial Injustices Through Art {{!}} Governors Island |website=Governors Island |language=en |access-date=March 12, 2017}}</ref>
* ''The Future Is Forever'', [International Center of Photography](/source/International_Center_of_Photography), [Mana Contemporary Art Center](/source/Mana_Contemporary) Jersey City, NJ 2015<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/the-future-is-forever |title=The Future is Forever: Ten Years of the ICP-Bard MFA Program |date=February 23, 2016 |work=International Center of Photography |access-date=March 12, 2017 |language=en}}</ref>

== Awards ==
* 2024: [Rome Prize](/source/Rome_Prize) in visual art from the [American Academy in Rome](/source/American_Academy_in_Rome)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nietzel |first1=Michael T. |title=American Academy in Rome Announces Winners of the 2024-25 Rome Prize |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2024/04/25/american-academy-in-rome-announces-winners-of-the-2024-25-rome-prize/ |work=Forbes}}</ref>
* 2019: [Anonymous Was a Woman Award](/source/Anonymous_Was_a_Woman_Award)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Recipients to Date |url=https://www.anonymouswasawoman.org/previous-recipients/ |access-date=July 27, 2018 |website=Anonymous Was A Woman |language=en-US}}</ref>
* 2019: Colene Brown Art Prize, BRIC<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=October 2, 2019 |title=Inaugural Recipients of BRIC's $100,000 Colene Brown Art Prize Announced |url=https://www.artforum.com/news/inaugural-recipients-of-brics-100000-colene-brown-art-prize-announced-244878/ |access-date=March 27, 2025 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Collections ==
* [National Gallery of Art](/source/National_Gallery_of_Art), Washington, D.C., United States<ref>{{Cite web |title=Audio Stop 956 |url=https://www.nga.gov/visit/tours-and-guides/self-guided-tours/en/stops/stop-956.html |access-date=May 20, 2023 |website=www.nga.gov |archive-date=May 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520183840/https://www.nga.gov/visit/tours-and-guides/self-guided-tours/en/stops/stop-956.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [Brooklyn Museum](/source/Brooklyn_Museum), Brooklyn, New York, United States<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brooklyn Museum |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/224269 |access-date=May 20, 2023 |website=www.brooklynmuseum.org}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Official website|http://nonafaustine.virb.com/home}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faustine, Nona}}
Category:1977 births
Category:2025 deaths
Category:21st-century African-American artists
Category:21st-century African-American women artists
Category:21st-century American photographers
Category:21st-century American women photographers
Category:African-American photographers
Category:American portrait photographers
Category:Bard College alumni
Category:People from Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Category:Photographers from Brooklyn
Category:School of Visual Arts alumni
Category:American people of Bubi descent
Category:American people of Hausa descent
Category:American people of Mandinka descent
Category:American people of Yoruba descent

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Nona Faustine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nona_Faustine) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nona_Faustine?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.