BLACKQTDN is a multi-volume collection depicting the everydayness of Black life-making against the rising tide of an anti-Black world. The collection includes digital and 35mm film photos taken in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans, Paris, and Philadelphia. Select images from the Dominican Republic, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and Johannesburg (South Africa).

The select images below (click to enlarge) were originally published in Volume 1 of the collection and are being submitted for consideration in the inaugural print issue of Black Is.

All images can be formatted and submitted for publication upon request.

About the Artist

My name is Charles H.F. Davis III and I am a third-generation educator, organizer, and artist committed to the lives, love, and liberation of everyday Black people. I am currently a faculty member in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan, where my research and teaching broadly focus on issues of race, racism, and resistance in education and society. I also am the founder and director of the Campus Abolition Research Lab, an interdisciplinary research incubator focused on leveraging data and critical analyses to disrupt and dismantle the carceral university while collaboratively reimagining postsecondary education as a life-affirming institution.

As a scholar I have produced a variety of publications including research articles, books, and essays as well as several short and feature-length films. As a creative, I primarily use photography and film to explore the materiality of Black culture and the sociopolitical lives of everyday Black people, in the United States and abroad. My work has been featured in, but not limited to, the Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg News, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and cited in amicus briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States. Additionally, I was named a 2020 Emerging Scholar by Diverse Issues in Higher Education, a 2021 recipient of National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a 2024 inductee into the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College.