33 Black Photographers Documented Their Hometowns for Apple's 'Shot on iPhone'

Every day in February on its Instagram, Apple highlighted the work of a different Black photographer—having commissioned 33 in all to document their hometowns as part of a Black History Month project.

It was the longest takeover of any campaign so far on the @apple handle, and the results were astonishing. Taken together, the work captured the soul of 17 major cities across the U.S., as seen by Black artists whose powerful images broadcast a legacy of beauty, struggle and transcendence.

To wrap up the project, Apple asked the 21-year-old Black filmmaker Phillip Youmans—whose first feature, Burning Cane, made when he was 17, won the Founders Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival—to take a closer look at four of the photographers in particular.

See Youmans’ resulting short film here:

Featured in the YouTube film are photographers Lawrence Agyei (Chicago), Gabriella Angotti-Jones (Los Angeles), Lauren Woods (Charlotte) and Julien James (Washington, D.C.). 

The campaign, created with TBWAMedia Arts Lab, continues this month with out-of-home ads appearing across the country, including billboards in the photographers’ hometowns. 

CREDITS

TBWAMedia Arts Lab + Apple
Director: (YouTube film) Phillip Youmans, Smuggler 

Photographers featured in the campaign: 
Lauren Woods
Julien James
Chanell Stone
Anthony Taylor
Mikayla Gamble
Josiah Rundles
Ben Willis
Lelanie Foster
Adrian Octavius Walker
Kamal X
Micaiah Carter
Amani Willett
McKayla Chandler
Hannah Price
Brian Day
Devin Christopher
Carlos Javier Ortiz
Darryl Richardson
Tavon Taylor
Shawn Theodore
Marissa Leshnov
Yasmin Yassin
Bethany Mollenkof
Ivan McClellan
Rahim Fortune
Philip Keith
Kevin Mohatt
Gabriella Angotti-Jones
Ashley Pena 
Joseph Ross
Zerb Mellish
Lawrence Agyei
Tyler Mitchell