1935-2002
Works in the Collection
Biography
Louis Draper was born in 1935 in Richmond, VA. His father was an amateur photographer, and Draper began studying photography in college. He took classes at NYU’s Institute of Film and Television and the New School for Social Research. There he studied with the influential photographer Eugene Smith.
Draper was one of the founding members of the Kamoinge Workshop, a New York collective of African American photographers that continues to exist to this day. He was a respected member of the New York photographic community and his work received international recognition.