Phyllis Galembo

Phyllis Galembo photographs cultural and religious traditions as well as the transformative power of ritual dress in Africa and the Americas. Her interest in these traditions began in 1985 during her first visit to Nigeria. Since then she continues to travel making portraits at masquerade events and ceremonies.

Galembo’s books include Mask, Dressed for Thrills: 100 Years of Halloween Costumes and Masquerade, Vodou: Visions and Voices of Haiti, and Divine Inspiration: From Benin to Bahia.

Galembo has had one-person exhibitions at the International Center for Photography, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Video, American Museum of Natural History, Fashion Institute of Technology, San Francisco Airport Museum, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Steven Kasher Gallery in New York, and Galerie Alex Daniëls—Reflex in Amsterdam.

Her work has been collected by the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Albany Institute of History and Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Galembo received a Senior Fulbright Research Award to photograph “Kings, Chiefs and Women of Power, Nigeria” and several Artists’ Fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She received an M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is a Professor of Art at the University at Albany, State University of New York.