Welcome to Saturate Stories!

Hey, I’m Rachel. It’s nice to meet you.

I’m a photographer living and working in NYC and my passion for photography began when I was 11. I have always loved the multitudes that a singular image can possess, so I’ve made it my focus to continuously explore the potential that image-making holds. Being a Black woman in photography had been a lonely game until I began college, where there were 3 other Black woman photographers in my year. This gave me hope that change is coming in the photographic community. Seeing Polly Irungu’s Black Women Photographer database, I know that the tides are absolutely changing as there is an energetic community of Black women who use photography to reconstruct the world around them. It is exhilarating for me to know that we are beginning to be seen and heard as the long-awaited change that the industry needs.

Saturate Stories is a space where I share my experience as a Black woman photographer and someday soon will share stories from members of the greater photographic community of Black women. This is a space where I’ll get into the background behind some of my favorite work as well as experiences that I’ve had as a photographer. The stories shared will delve into the cultural side of art and photography that tends to be discussed in academia, books, or the occasional article. The culture of photography is worthy of greater discussion and it should reach those beyond those spaces; into the real world. I’ll also get personal and dive into challenges I’ve faced and how I navigate them.

I believe that photography is endless and can hold many stories, perspectives, and ideas. We ought to share those ideas and discover what possibilities lie within the medium, especially as new doors open for Black women photographers. Our stories are valuable, meaningful, varied, and worth telling. The conversation of culture within photography has for a long time been directed by one voice, a singular perspective. It’s about time that we step outside of that perspective and share from our own.

Thank you for being here and I can’t wait to begin this journey with you!

Rachel Cassandra Gibbons