She is a MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow, and University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. In 2014 Willis received the NAACP Image Award for her co-authored book Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery (with Barbara Krauthamer) and in 2015 for the documentary Through a Lens Darkly, inspired by her book Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present. Willis is a creative hero of mine - not only for her own photography, but for her wide contributions to photo education, discourse and the cultural framing of photo history and visual literacy. We get to the heart of Willis’ work, inspirations, and the importance of capturing, retelling and representing the legacies of Black joy through photographic evidence and storytelling.