Naima Green
Biography
Naima Green is an American artist, photographer, and educator based in New York. Her collaborative practice centers intimacy, safety, self-recognition, place, and pleasure, working across photography, sound, installation, and experimental film. She teaches in the Creative Practices program at the International Center of Photography and in New York City Public Schools.
Green's work documents Black and queer communities and explores relationships between people, place, water, and pleasure. Her project Pur·suit features portraits of queer womxn, trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people, while Skin Contact extends her portrait practice through an ongoing online archive of photographs and personal materials.
Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the International Center of Photography, Fotografiska New York, and the Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU. Her 2025–2026 ICP exhibition Instead, I spin fantasies examined pregnancy and representations of motherhood through constructed self-portraits, landscapes, and still lifes.
BQW Impact
Green contributes to Black queer cultural history through a photographic practice centered on intimacy, community, pleasure, and self-determination. Through projects including Pur·suit and Skin Contact, she creates collaborative records of contemporary Black queer life and preserves stories that might otherwise remain undocumented.
Her work expands the visual record of Black queer communities by emphasizing care, connection, pleasure, and self-representation. Her approach to photography as a collaborative form of archival practice gives her work lasting cultural and historical significance.
Notable Works
Jewels from the Hinterland (2013)
Ongoing photographic project portraying people of the African diaspora in green spaces while exploring relationships to place, leisure, rest, and belonging.
Pur·suit (2018)
Ongoing portrait project featuring queer womxn, trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people and documenting contemporary queer communities.
Skin Contact
Online archive and collaborative project collecting photographs and personal materials that extend Green's exploration of intimacy, care, connection, and community.
I Keep Missing My Water (2022 - 2023)
Multimedia exhibition exploring intimacy, sexuality, the body, and relationships to water through photography, video, sound, wallpaper, and ephemera.
Instead, I spin fantasies (2025 - 2026)
ICP exhibition examining pregnancy and representations of motherhood through constructed self-portraits, landscapes, and still lifes.
Learn More
Green's official website includes her biography, portfolio, exhibitions, projects, and current professional information.
International Center of Photography
ICP's institutional profile documents Green's practice, exhibition history, and Instead, I spin fantasies.
MoMA's artist record provides biographical information and documents Green's work and institutional holdings.
This creator-specific interview discusses Green's photography, queer identity, Afro-queer communities, and her approach to documenting the present.