Rahim Fortune (born 1994)[1] is an American fine-art / documentary photographer, living and working between Austin, Texas and Brooklyn, New York.[2][3] He has made two books of work in the Southern United States: Oklahoma (2020) and I Can't Stand to See You Cry (2021).
Life and work
Fortune was born in Austin, Texas and grew up in nearby Kyle, and in Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma.[2][4] His mother is Chickasaw and his father is African American.[2] Fortune is a self-taught photographer.[2]
Oklahoma (2020) is a two-volume self-published book made "on trips back to Tupelo, Oklahoma, where he and his sister lived with their mother earlier in their childhood."[2]
I Can't Stand to See You Cry (2021) "touches on the declining health and death of a parent, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the protests and uprising in response to the police murders of Black people around" the United States.[5] Made in Texas and surrounding states, mostly in 2020,[4] the book includes intimate black and white portraits of strangers and his family members, urban landscapes, textures, and abandoned buildings. It was made using a medium format film camera.[6][7]
Fortune has also photographed Black and Indigenous people living in waterfront communities in America;[8] the Bronner Bros. Hair Show in Atlanta (a twice-yearly show where contestants demonstrate the styling of Black hair");[9] and has made street style portraits in New York City using an iPhone.[10] He has undertaken commissions for The New York Times.[11][12]
As of May 2021[update], he lived in Brooklyn, New York.[2]
