Lives and works in Tennessee
1951 Born in Brooklyn, New York
EDUCATION
1972 B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (studied with Minor White)
1975 M.F.A. Yale University School of Art (studied with Walker Evans)
GRANTS /AWARDS
1990 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
Commission to photograph for America's Forgotten Places
1984 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship
1984 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 A Southern Portrait, 1983-1989, David Hill Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2022 Baldwin Lee, Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, California
Baldwin Lee, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, New York
2015 Photographs of Black Americans, Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
2012 Baldwin Lee: The South in Black and White, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia
1995 Baldwin Lee, A Decade of Photography, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
1992 Baldwin Lee, Photographs of Black Southerners, 1983-1988, University of Kansas Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas
1991 Baldwin Lee: Photographs of Black Southerners, 1983-1988, University of Michigan Art Museum, Ann Arbor, Michigan
1987 Baldwin Lee, Southeast Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 New Directions: Recent Acquisitions, The Eastman Museum , Rochester, New York
2023 A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
2022 A Twofold Vision: Baldwin Lee & Mark Steinmetz (curated by Richard McCabe), The Do Good Fund Gallery, Columbus, Georgia
2018 One Place Understood: Photographs from the Do Good Fund Collection, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
Looking at the South: Photographs from the Do Good Fund, Lee Gallery, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
2016 Land Inhabited and Works of Baldwin Lee, The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta
Pictures of Us: Photographs from the Do Good Fund, The Lyndon House Arts Center, Athens, Georgia
2014 Wide Angle: American Photographs, The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
2010 Vision, Language, and Influence: Photographs of the South, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
1992 The Sporting Life, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
1989 New Southern Photography: Beyond Myth and Reality, Burden Gallery, New York, New York
1987 Photography: Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
1986 Photography: Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
PUBLIC LECTURES
2016 ACP Lecture Series, Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, Georgia
2014 TEDxUTK Talk at the Howard Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy
TEACHING
1982-Present Professor of Art Emeritus, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
2001 Provost's Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
1991-1992 Visiting Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1988 National Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
1982 Inaugurated Photography Program at University of Tennessee, Knoxville
1979-1982 Head of Photography Department, Assist., Massachusetts College of Art
Professor of Photography, Massachusetts College of Art
1975-1979 Asst. Professor of Photography, Yale University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2023 “13 Older Photographers Show Us Their Work – and Themselves,” NYTimes Opinion, September 6
Lustig, Josh. “Gallery: Baldwin Lee,” The Financial Times Magazine, July 7
“A Southern Portrait,” Framelines, April 01
O’Hagen, Sean. “Baldwin Lee on his rediscovered images of the deep south,” The Guardian, March 11
Waywell, Chris. “Baldwin Lee: A Southern Portrait 1983-1989,” Timeout [London], March 10.
Pill, Steve. “Documents of Disparity,” Black + White Photography, Issue 275. February 16.
Steinmetz, Mark. “Old and New Discoveries: Baldwin Lee Interviewed by Mark Steinmetz,” BOMB Magazine, January 25.
2022 Moroz, Sarah. “Baldwin Lee,” The Brooklyn Rail, November
Renkl, Margaret. “Baldwin Lee Is One of Those Artists Who Teach Us to See,” The New York Times, October 31
“Portraits of Black life in the South,” MIT Technology Review, October 25
Aletti, Vince. “Baldwin Lee,” Photograph Magazine, October
Huang, Jia Jia. “Beginning and ending a prodigious career in photography,” Artforum, October 3
Wiley, Chris. “Baldwin Lee’s Extraordinary Pictures from the American South,” The New Yorker, October 1
Rosen, Miss. “A mesmerizing portrait of the American South in the 1980s,” I-D Magazine, September 26
Moroz, Sarah. “How Baldwin Lee Saw Ageless Beauty in ‘80s-Era Black America,” Daily Beast. September 23
Dickerman, Kenneth. “Baldwin Lee’s stunningly artistic photos of the American South,” The Washington Post. September 23
Saint-Louis, Elodie. “Baldwin Lee’s Empathetic Photos of the American South,” AnOther Magazine. September 22
Neri, Dylan. “Snapshot,” Financial Times. September 17/18
Gerald, Casey. “A More Complete Archive of the American South,” The Atlantic. September 14
Kulok, Barney, ed., Baldwin Lee. Texts by Casey Gerald and Jessica Bell Brown. Hunters Point Press (monograph)
“Into Focus,” Wall Street Journal Magazine, August 28
Patterson, Sala Elise. “Journeys to the South,” British Journal of Photography: Tradition & Identity, July/August
Perry, Imani. “Lessons from Black and Chinese Relations in the Deep South,” The Atlantic, June 10.
2021 Gerald, Casey. “Baldwin Lee’s Southern Journeys.” Aperture Magazine, Fall.
2020 Rosen, Miss. “A Powerful Portrait of Black American Life in the South,” Huck Magazine, June
2015 Steinmetz, Mark. “Photographing Black Lives in America's South,” LightBox, Time Magazine, February 25.
2012 Annas, Teresa. “Baldwin Lee’s unblinking views of the South.” The Virginian-Pilot, June 26.
COLLECTIONS
George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Museum of the City of New York, New York, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, D.C.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan
University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, Kentucky
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut