New York Film Academy (NYFA) is proud to share that Photography alum Jon Henry has been featured in the October 2020 issue of National Geographic (“Nat Geo”).
Henry, who previously won photography’s most prestigious honors—the Film Photo Award—for his series Stranger Fruit, had his photographs from the series displayed on multiple pages in the Nat Geo issue. The series itself incorporates Michelangelo’s Pietà as a response to the ongoing, senseless murders of African American men by police officers across the United States, Henry shared.
“What we’re experiencing now is just this series of reliving these traumas as far as the African-American community,” Henry shared with Nat Geo. “It’s difficult to keep living these [traumas] over and over again, sort of like a perverse Groundhog Day where these murders just keep on happening,”
Lonnae O’Neal, who interviewed Henry for the Nat Geo feature, wrote: “The photographs of mothers and sons, of Black bodies—whole and unpierced, yet still Christ-like in death—do not gently plead with viewers any more than street protesters merely invite police to change.”
Henry enrolled in the 1-Year Conservatory at New York Film Academy’s Photography school in Fall 2010. In his visual artwork, he focuses primarily on the American Black family and the community at large, as well as the representation of athletes in fine art. His work has been featured on the covers of Jungle and PDN magazines, as well as in ArtExpo New York, Smack Mellon’s Hot Picks 2017, and Miami’s Spectrum Art Show.
Henry travelled across the country for five years and plans to continue for at least another two years through various additional locations, including New Orleans, Nashville, and throughout Texas in 2020.
The Film Photo Award is sponsored by Kodak Alaris and Kodak Professional and is awarded twice a year, providing three distinct grants of Kodak Professional Film and complimentary film processing by Griffin Editions to photographers who demonstrate a serious commitment to the art and are motivated to continue the development of still, film-based photography in the 21st century.
During each Spring and Fall award cycle, two Visionary Project Awards and one Student Project Award are granted to winners selected from emerging, established, and student photographers worldwide, who are 18 years old or older.
New York Film Academy congratulates Photography alum Jon Henry on his well-earned feature in National Geographic and looks forward to seeing his continued work in the field!
*This post has been updated from its original publication on February 28, 2020 highlighting Jon Henry’s prestigious Film Photo Award from Kodak
Please note: NYFA does not represent that these are typical or guaranteed career outcomes. The success of our graduates in any chosen professional pathway depends on multiple factors, and the achievements of NYFA alumni are the result of their hard work, perseverance, talent and circumstances.