Courtney Coles
Adjunct Professor
Courtney Coles is a photographer and writer born and raised in Los Angeles. she received her MFA with an emphasis in photography & media from CalArts in 2019 and her BFA in photography from the Pacific Northwest College of art in 2014. Her practice is rooted in her fascination with the multiple ways she considers people, places and memories “home” and her desire to preserve it. She is enthralled by making photographs that are soft and sincere because the world has been anything but to Black queer women like her. She extends grace first to herself, as seen in her self-portraits, and then to her loved ones who so graciously invite her into their lives. Where the world has failed in protecting her, she has stepped in to make the quiet photographs that soothe her. For a number of years she has made intimate photographs in the music industry and in 2016 she co-founded to the front, a traveling art show and collective for women and non-binary artists working in the music industry.
Photo Credit: Rafael Hernandez