Sheila Pree Bright facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sheila Pree Bright
Known for	Fine Art Photography
Movement	Photography

Sheila Pree Bright is an award-winning American photographer who lives in Atlanta. She is famous for her photo series like Plastic Bodies, Suburbia, Young Americans, and her newest series, #1960Now. Sheila also wrote a book called #1960Now: Photographs of Civil Rights Activist and Black Lives Matter Protest, which was published by Chronicle Books. This book shows pictures of people who fought for equal rights.

Sheila Pree Bright's Early Life and Education

Sheila Pree Bright was born in Waycross, Georgia. Because her family was in the military, she lived in Germany when she was very young. Later, her family moved back to the United States, living in places like Colorado and Kansas. These places did not have many Black people, which later influenced her photography.

She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri in 1998. She first became interested in photography during a photography class in her last year of college. In 1998, she moved to Atlanta and later earned a master's degree from Georgia State University in 2003.

Sheila Pree Bright's Photography Career

People often describe Sheila Pree Bright as a "cultural anthropologist." This means she studies people and their cultures through her art. Her first photography experiences began in Houston. There, she photographed the hip hop music scene and explored how music and community life connected.

In 2003, she created her master's project, a photo series called Plastic Bodies. This series was shown in a film called Through the Lens Darkly and became very popular online in 2013. In these photos, she changed images of Black women and Barbie dolls. She wanted to challenge common ideas of beauty and show how these ideas affect girls and women of color.

Bright became nationally recognized in 2006 when she won the Center Prize at the Santa Fe Center of Photography. She won for her Suburbia series, which shows pictures of African American life in the suburbs. In 2008, she had her first solo art show at the High Museum of Art. This show featured her series Young Americans. These photos were her way of responding to how young people (often called Millennials) were often shown in a negative way. She let the people in her photos choose their own clothes and poses. This helped them "speak for themselves" through her art.

In 2014, Bright was chosen for the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia's Working Artist Project. During this time, she created her series 1960Who. In this work, she took portraits of several civil rights activists from the 1960s and 1970s. These included Dr. Roslyn Pope, Lonnie King, Herman Russel, Charles Person, and Claire O'Connor. Besides the museum show, she put these large portraits on public walls in downtown Atlanta. This was to honor and celebrate their important work.

In 2014 and 2015, Bright visited Ferguson and Baltimore. She went there after the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray to photograph the protests. These photos led to her series #1960Now. Bright’s book, #1960Now, was published by Chronicle Books on October 16, 2018.

The #1960Now series is now part of many important art collections. These include the Smithsonian African American History and Culture Museum in Washington, D.C., and The High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Sheila Pree Bright's Awards

Sheila Pree Bright has received many awards for her photography, including:

• 2019 PNC Bank & WCLK Honor Atlanta's African American Artistic Community, Atlanta, GA
• 2018 SPE Imagemaker Award, Cleveland, OH
• 2015 Proclamation, Atlanta City Council, Atlanta, GA
• 2012 Delta Sigma Theta Celebration of Women Torch Award, Atlanta, GA
• 2010 Save The Art Awards, Greensboro, NC
• 2009 The Loridans Arts Encouragement Award, Atlanta, GA
• 2006 Santa Fe Prize, Santa Fe Center for Photography, Santa Fe, NM
• 2001 National Bronica Award, Tamron USA, New York, NY
• 1999 New Works Photography Award, En Foco, Inc., Bronx, NY