AWARDEE BIO

Leigh Mosley has been a Washington DC-based freelance photographer and educator for nearly 60 years. She has been an adjunct professor of Photography at American University and Television Production at the University of the District of Columbia where she earned a BA in Psychology. She received a Master's degree in Digital Art from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. Her work has been published extensively in newspapers and magazines including The Washington Blade and exhibited in numerous galleries and institutions. She is currently completing a documentary on 11 Black lesbians in the DMV (DC, MD and VA) who have made substantial contributions to the LGBTQ+ and Black communities during the past 40-50 years.

"As an 80-year-old Black lesbian photographer and documentarian, leadership has primarily meant being a witness - recording stories that others have overlooked and institutions did not center. At this stage in my life and work, leadership means curating my archives intentionally, choosing how institutions encounter my vision, deciding what stories my life work tells and guiding, perhaps inspiring younger artists who did not have the opportunity to see what my cameras and lenses captured in the Black history of the LGBTQ+ communities."