Bio
I acquired my Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Webster College (St. Louis, Missouri 1981). I then began my travels throughout the United States, briefly living in Tampa (Florida) and Seattle (Washington). After a few years on the road, my soul was drawn toward the cosmopolitan city of Chicago (Illinois). Each city had its own flavor, but Chicago was filled with the diversity, creativity, and the progressiveness I hungered. Since 1985, Chicago has been my primary residence.
My creative seeds began sprouting as a child growing up in the predominately Anglo town of Hutchinson, Kansas. I often spoke out against negative portrayals of minorities and their minimum contributions to society recorded and read about in history and literature books. Because I was rather quick to voice my opinion, my teachers deemed me disruptive. They frequently sent me out of class for my vexing behavior. Before my grades dropped, I realized that an antagonistic stance was more destructive than constructive. Deep inside my soul I knew there was another way to express my feelings about the civil injustices toward people just because of the color of their skin.
During this self-aware turbulent time in my life, I began to show an interest in art, specifically photography. With money saved from an after school job, I purchased my first 35mm camera, a Vivitar 440 SL. I felt by having my own camera, this would ensure me a seat in the high school photography class. I was told the classes were full and there was no place for me even though I had my own camera. This news was dis-heartening, but it fueled my fire.
Seeing the self-destructive road I was headed down, an older-wiser friend suggested I attend a lecture at the local college. This lecture was to feature a famous artist from Kansas. The artist turned out to be world-renowned photographer Gordon Parks, Jr.
After listening about Parks’ childhood life in the similar circumstanced sized town of Ft. Scott, Kansas, I began to understand why Parks chose the camera as a weapon to combat racism and other social injustices. To borrow the cliché, “A camera speaks a thousand words” and through print, he was able to spread the word. I immediately felt a kindred spirit. Affirmingly, I felt that one of my life’s many goals was set - to visually educate people about other cultures.
Ironically in 1997, the city that introduced me to barriers, walls and other “isms” of life, rewarded me with a grant requesting a visit and multiple lectures at the schools that I attended. I commend Hutchinson, Kansas because now there’s a common goal of bringing together multi-cultural communities and the promotion of diversity. I am proud of that city for their efforts.
After receiving my Master of Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College Chicago (1997), I have been working on photo-documentaries showcasing people of color (specifically African descendants) scattered throughout the Americas.
“I photograph everyday life and traditions of African descendants and people of color throughout the western world. My hopeful intent is that people will be inspired to hold on to their traditions passing them down through generations so their cultural identity will not fade. I believe if you don’t know where you come from, you don’t know who you are. I am grateful to share my work and talk about the commonalities among people regardless of their ethnicity or nationality.”
Michael Bracey has received rave recognition for his lectures, photography exhibitions, and acquired various awards; the most recently being a grant from the Community Arts Assistance Program in Chicago (2004) and a fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council (2003) for his Africans Within the Americas book project and the 1987 Pulitzer winner John H. White Award for Portfolio of the Year (2001). To view other works of Bracey’s or purchase additions books, please visit www.caaap.org The Journey: The Next 100 years (2006 release) was published by the Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers in conjunction with Roosevelt University Press, the Chicago History Museum, and Chicago Tribune newspaper.
Bracey is a member of the Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers (CAAAP) where he was president from March 2002 – April 2004; an associate member with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ); and a member with the City of Chicago’s African Advisory Council where their focus is bridging the differences between the African/African-American/ and West Indian cultures within the city.
Bracey credits the following photographers for their unofficial mentoring: the master pioneer Henri Cartier-Bresson for choosing the “trivial” moment of human existence and making it decisively significant for the entire world to enjoy; the trailblazing maestro Gordon Parks for his courage and perseverance for choosing the camera to combat racism and poverty; and the humanitarian Sabastio Salgaldo for showing us the strength and dignity of the poor and deprived as they search for equality and the basic human needs of health, food and shelter.
