IMAGEMAKER. STORYTELLER. cREATOR.
About The Artist
Ayana Gordon (b. 1998) is a self-taught Antiguan-Haitian photographer and multimedia artist based in Baltimore, MD. Working primarily with analog film and darkroom printing, she creates textured, immersive images that explore identity, heritage, and the spiritual connections between people and their environments. Rooted in Caribbean and Haitian lineages, her work honors ancestry through portraiture, landscape, and image-making, weaving personal experience into collective remembrance.
Her visual storytelling has been recognized internationally, including as a finalist in the 2024 LensCulture Portrait Awards, with features in Vogue Italia: Global Photovogue, Artsy, and The Guardian. Her work has been exhibited at the 2024 LA Art Show and presented publicly through LEDBaltimore’s city-wide art initiative. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence in Baltimore and has participated in exhibitions, including Untethered Familars Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD, 2026, Return to Roots, Full Circle Fine Art, Baltimore, MD, 2024, Greyscale, Santa Fe, NM, 2023; #ASLONGASITSDOPE, Flatform, Baltimore, MD, 2021. Recent awards include: Maryland State Arts Council Creativity Grant.
Ayana’s practice functions as a living altar, celebrating Black identity, feminine strength, and the intimacy of place, memory, and legacy. Her images honor the relationships that shape us: between family and homeland, between ritual and daily life, between who we are and who we come from. By blending personal narrative with broader cultural histories, she creates space for reflection, connection, and a fuller telling of Caribbean and Haitian experience.
“W here there is culture, t here is art.
— Artsi Ifrah
Artist Statement
I am a Baltimore-based photographer and multimedia artist whose work is rooted in the exploration of identity, shaped by my Antiguan and Haitian heritage and American upbringing. My practice is a continuous journey of self-discovery, cultural reflection, and spiritual reconnection—grounded in honoring the complexity and beauty of Black life.
Through film photography, set design, and storytelling, I create immersive visual narratives that center ancestral memory, celebrate Caribbean identity, and affirm the power of representation. My current work explores how environment, spirit, and personal history intersect to shape who we are. I use intentional composition and stylization to uplift the voices of people of color, inviting viewers to see themselves more fully.
My process doesn’t end with the image—it continues in the darkroom, where I hand-print each photograph. That space of isolation is sacred. It’s where I connect with the work in its rawest form. There are no teams—just me, the image, and the slow ritual of bringing it to life. It becomes a dance: intuitive, tactile, and deeply personal. Navigating the dark with confidence, even with eyes closed, has become a metaphor for my practice—trusting instinct, surrendering to process, and listening closely to what the work wants to become.
My work functions as an altar to my lineage and a living archive of cultural experience. Every image I create is part of a larger narrative that asks audiences to reflect on their own stories, identities, and relationships to place. Whether documenting ceremony, staging portraits, or building interactive experiences, I aim to create work that honors the past, speaks to the present, and inspires future connections.
