About the artist
Willie Mack
Artist statement
I have lived within a shifting field of access and erasure, and that shapes how I move and what I see as a gay Black man. My images hold time and longing without apology, containing silence, memory, and contradiction all at once.
I want my work to build a world that reflects people who love, feel, and look like me, and anyone who knows how it feels to exist between fear and freedom. It invites viewers into a space of shared humanity that does not shrink from our complexity. I am interested in the quiet places where our humanity is undeniable and celebrated in its diversity.
Biography
Willie Mack is a fine art photographer and visual artist. He lives and works in Los Angeles and New York.
He grew up in Washington, DC, and loved the museums: the scale, depth, and texture of paintings, and “the beauty of the contradictions.” Told by his mother not to stare at strangers on the train, he now stares at them through a lens.
He came of age as a gay Black man in the ’90s, living through the war on drugs and the AIDS epidemic. “The world told me that my stories didn’t matter,” he says, “so I created my own through images.”
Travel has been his compass since 18, studying and working in Southeast Asia, Europe, and India.
He studied photography at UCLA and completed the Professional Certificate at the Los Angeles Center of Photography. He has shown in group exhibitions in Los Angeles, and his work is held in private collections around the world.
His work is for people who look, feel, and love like him, and anyone who has ever felt fear and freedom while celebrating the beauty, strength, and diversity of humanity.
Collaborations and press
For collaborations and press, write to studio@themackster.com.