Chicago-based award-winning photographer Michael Bracey, was born in Key West, Florida, but raised in Hutchinson, Kansas, which is where his interest in photography began after attending a lecture from the famous photographer Gordon Parks, who was a native of Ft, Scott, Kansas.

In 2001, Bracey received the John H. White (a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer) Portfolio of the Year award from the Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers (CAAAP) for his contributions to their project The Journey: The Next 100 Years.  Besides a traveling exhibition, The Journey became a book created and published by CAAAP in conjunction with Roosevelt University Press, the Chicago History Museum, and the Chicago Tribune newspaper.  This experience catapulted him into the book publishing world, where he decided to self-published a few books:  Africans Within the Americas, Urban Waters, and Caras Lindas de Colombia (Beautiful Faces of Colombia), the later co-authored with poet Ruth Goring.  Another book, Rivers of Women is co-authored with his Webster (College) University professor and St. Louis City poet laureate Shirley LeFlore and published by 2LeafPress.org

He has received rave recognition for his lectures and photography exhibitions in the United States as well as abroad. Besides his contributions to several publications, he has been awarded various grants and an Illinois based fellowship for his on-going African diaspora project titled, Africans within the Americas which resulted in a traveling exhibition and a book of the same title.

Bracey says, “Most of this work (the Clayworks exhibit) is about various cultures, landscapes, and the daily lives of their inhabitants.  My (photographic) goal is to visually educate and show that no matter where you live, what language you speak, we (people) are all the same.  We have more in common than not.  With this exhibition, I hope to encourage others to travel and see their world.  As the famous writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Michael Bracey holds an Associated of Arts degree from Hutchinson Community College (1978), a Bachelor of Arts from Webster (College) University, St. Louis, MO (1981), and a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College Chicago, IL (1997).

To read more about Michael Bracey and view other works please visit his website: www.michaelbracey.photography