Kennedi Carter: Sight Unseen

Born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, Kennedi Carter has garnered international acclaim through her portraits of "overlooked beauties of the Black experience: skin, texture, trauma, peace, love and community." Defined as "without inspection or appraisal," Carter's work exemplifies the phrase "sight unseen." Her images approach and depict moments without judgement or preconceived notions of what constitutes memorable or worthy. The exhibition draws on Carter's ability to capture the "unseen" — moments often overlooked or invisible to society.

Featuring a number of new works, the exhibition demonstrates the breadth of Carter's vision and provides a glimpse into the personal worlds she photographs. Carter's relationship with the subject is open and borderless and, as a result, the viewer’s engagement with the artwork has no bounds.

A special thank you to the Dana and Albert R. Broccoli Foundation for supporting Kennedi Carter: Sight Unseen.

Kennedi Carter is a photographer with a primary focus on Black subjects, her work aims to reinvent notions of creativity and confidence in the realm of Blackness. When capturing portraits, Carter aims to help her subjects feel at ease and comfortable sharing themselves. She connects with her subjects closely and with care to ensure a bond between photographer and subject. Highly sought-after, Carter's photography has been featured in GQ, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and more – including the cover of Beyoncé in the December 2020 issue of British Vogue.

Leandra-Juliet Kelley is a curator and art historian based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Leandra earned a BA in Ethnomusicology from Earlham College where her love of art and music resulted in a documentary on Cincinnati’s electronic music scene. In 2014, Leandra earned an MA in Ethnomusicology at King’s College London with her dissertation that integrated interviews and a photographic series of the local grime music scene.

While abroad, Leandra traveled extensively throughout the UK and Europe, residing in Rome, Italy for a time. Upon returning to the U.S., she lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, working for the Cincinnati Art Museum, Taft Museum of Art, and Contemporary Arts Center before relocating to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2016. While in Charlotte, Leandra worked at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art for over three years before returning to the UK in 2019 to earn a MSc degree in the History of Art (Theory & Display) from the University of Edinburgh. She currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina where she works as the Director of Collections + Curatorial Affairs at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture.

Download the free companion gallery guide for Sight Unseen here.