Naomieh Jovin

“I began my work as an artist in order to reimagine and understand the body as a form outside of shame.”

Naomieh Jovin’s (she/her) work blends original photography with reappropriated images from family collections to contemplate her Haitian American identity, family history, spirituality, and the African diaspora. Her striking portraits converse with found photos of relatives and examine how the Black body is perceived, creating intimate, expressive depictions of vulnerability and healing. In her project Gwo Fanm (Haitian Creole for “Big Woman”), Jovin combines audio interviews with found and original photography as a way to investigate her own role in her family’s origin and immigration stories, and to tell the stories of the women relatives who have “shouldered unimaginable burdens,” she says. Jovin’s honors include an award from the Magnum Foundation Fund, a Mural Arts Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists, and a residency at the TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image (formerly known as Philadelphia Photo Arts Center). Jovin earned a BFA from Moore College of Art & Design.