About

Jules Allen, a respected, award-winning photographer currently lives and works in New York. Allen is currently with The City University of New York where he is a professor with the Department of Art and Photography at Queensborough College. Allen's photographs are metaphorical documents whose primary resources are grounded in behavior, enlightenment and irony.

Allen’s work expresses the essential truth, that a culture's power is clearest when presented on its own terms. He shares the belief of photographer Diane Arbus, who states; "the more specific a thing is, the more general." The artist, Danny Dawson, says wryly that Mr. Allen has a "keen eye for the obvious;" his lifelong work is evocative of the contemporary black experience. The images place subjects, drawn from the richness of black life, within universal paradigms. He has been a recipient of numerous awards and grants for his series of work on boxing, nudes, rhythmology, hats and hatnots and marching bands.

His aesthetic vision embraces black music, gesture and ritual, and renders American culture more meaningful for the world. He has worked on films in this country, Ghana, Guinea and Mali. His photographs are in museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian, The National Gallery. He has been widely exhibited in the U.S. and abroad and his extensive commercial and corporate work has been seen on the covers of numerous periodicals, magazines, journals albums and compact discs.