NYDIA BLAS
is a visual artist who grew up in Ithaca, New York and currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a B.S. from Ithaca College, and received her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Her photographs have been commissioned by The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and more.
Nydia uses photography, collage, video, and books to address matters of sexuality, intimacy, and her lived experience as a girl, woman, and mother. She delicately weaves stories concerning circumstance, value, and power and uses her work to create a physical and allegorical space presented through a Black feminine lens. The result is an environment that is dependent upon the belief that in order to maintain resiliency, a magical outlook is necessary. In this space, props function as extensions of the body, costumes as markers of identity, and gestures/actions reveal the performance, celebration, discovery and confrontation involved in reclaiming one's body for their own exploration, discovery, and understanding.
She has completed artist residencies at Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts and The Center for Photography at Woodstock. Her work has been featured in the book Mfon: A Journal of Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, The Huffington Post, The NYTimes Style Magazine, Aperture Foundation, Time, Refinery 29, Frames Magazine, and more.
Nydia is recognized for her body of work entitled, The Girls Who Spun Gold, which is a collection of images that resulted from a Girl Empowerment Group that Blas founded after observing a lack of space and community for teen girls of African descent in Ithaca, New York. In 2019, she was named “One to Watch” by the British Journal of Photography. She was one of twelve participants for The World Press Photo Foundation’s 26th edition of the 2019 Joop Swart Masterclass. In 2020 she was named on the Lit List and in 2021, The Silver List.
EDUCATION
2016 Master of Fine Arts, Art Photography, Syracuse University, Syracuse N.Y.
2011 Bachelor of Science, Cinema and Photography, Ithaca College, Ithaca N.Y.
SELECTED CLIENTS
2021 The New York Times “Her Family Owned Slaves. How Can She Make Amends?”
2021 The Washington Post “Shaped by Black Lives Matter, Gen Z watches Chauvin trial with cynicism and urgency: ‘What’s next?’”
2021 T Magazine “The Activists Working to Remake the Food System”
2021 The Washington Post “The racist legacy many birds carry”
2021 The Washington Post “The youngest victims of a national calamity, and the people they left behind”
2020 The New York Times “Five Kwanzaa Celebrations Around the Country”
2020 Time Magazine, “Meet Some of the Supporters Who Helped Deliver the Election to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris”
2020 New York Times Magazine, “ Best Actors of 2020”
2020 Harper’s Bazaar, “Chef Mashama Bailey on Getting Her Seat at the Table”
2020 The Atlantic, “I Moved on her Very Heavily”
2020 New York Times, “Chairman of Elite of Elite Wine Group Resigns Amid Its Sexual Harassment Scandal”
2020 Bloomberg Businessweek, “A Reset for Entrepreneurship”
2020 The Washington Post, “Swept up by police”
2020 The New York Times, “From Alabama to the Capitol, the Journey to Honor John Lewis”
2020 Level Magazine/Medium, “The Mean Girl of Morehouse Returns”
2020 The New Yorker, “How Far Can Abused Women Go to Protect Themselves?”
2019 Topic Magazine, “Black Girl Magic”
2019 The New York Times Magazine, “Navigating Two Communities, Isolated From Both”
2018 The New York Times Magazine, “Being Women: Poetry and Imagery”
2018 New York Magazine, “Rape at Rosie’s”
2018 The New York Times Magazine, “Tracy K. Smith, America’s Poet Laureate, Is a Woman with a Mission”
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2020 “Say What You Want to Say”, Los Angeles Center of Photography, Los Angeles CA
2020 “Photo L.A.”, Virtual Collect & Connect
2019 “Joop Swart Masterclass exhibition”, World Press Photo, Museum Night, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2019 “What She Sees” The Lola, Atlanta G.A.
2019 “Seeking Tongues: Postcolonial Photographies”, Landmark Gallery: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
2019 “This body of mine” Strange Fire Collective, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee WI
2019 “Curiosa” Paris Photo Festival, Paris, France
2019 “New Visions on Contemporary Photography”, Imago Lisboa Photo Festival, Lisbon, Portugal
2019 “Art in Ad Places”, Streets of NYC, New York NY
2019 “Radial Survey”, Silver Eye Center, Pittsburg PA
2019 “Art Atlas”, Harvester Arts, Wichita KS
2018 “VIGILANCE,STRUGGLE, PRIDE: THROUGH HER EYES”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia
2018 “ALTAR: Prayer, Ritual, Offerings”, Photoville, Brooklyn Bridge Park NY
2018 “Into the Light”, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York NY
2018 The Wing, Brooklyn, N.Y. & Washington DC
2018 “VIGILANCE, STRUGGLE, PRIDE: THROUGH HER EYES”, Umetnostna galerija Maribor, Maribor, Slovenija
2017 "Albert Weisman Award Exhibition", Columbia College, Chicago IL
2017 "The Feeling is Mutual" Rangefinder Gallery, Chicago IL
2016 “The Trouble With Flesh” Light Work, Syracuse NY
2016 “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” The George Washington Carver Museum Austin TX
2016 Syracuse University MFA Show, SU Art Galleries, Syracuse NY
SOLO EXHIBITION
2018 “ Black Magic”, Corners Gallery, Ithaca, N.Y.
2018 “Whatever You Like”, Over The Influence, Los Angeles C.A.
2016 “The Girls Who Spun Gold” Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca NY
2015 “The Girls That Spun Gold”, SALTQuarters, Syracuse N.Y.
RESIDENCIES
2016 The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
2015 Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Ithaca NY
PUBLIC LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS
2020 “The Age of the Female Gaze,” Belfast Photo Festival
2020 “Artist Talk” Virtual, Royal Academy of Art
2020 “Artist Talk” Virtual, Georgia State University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, & Royal Academy of Art
2019 “Keynote lecture” Society for Photographic Education: South Central Chapter Conference, Lubbock TX
2019 “MFON Photo Salon” Magnum Foundation, New York, NY
2018 “Women’s Perspectives” Organ Vida International Photography Festival, Zagreb, Croatia
2018 “We the Girls Who Spun Gold” Cornell University, Ithaca NY
2017 "Women Picturing Revolution" LightField Festival, Hudson NY
2017 "Art is for Empathy" Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, Canada
2016 “The Girls Who Spun Gold” Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity Discussion Series, Ithaca College, Ithaca N.Y.
2016 “As Bad As I Wanna Be” Panel Discussion, Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse NY
GRANTS/AWARDS
2021 The Division of the Arts Carnegie/Rockefeller Priority Award, Spelman College
2020 Lit List, Authority Collective
2020 10 Women Photographers to Watch in 2020, Photographic Museum of Humanity
2019 Joop Swart Masterclass, World Press Photo
2019 One to Watch, British Journal of Photography
2018 Selected Talent, 6X6 Global Talent Program: North and Central America, World Press Photo
2018 Light Work Grant, Light Work, Syracuse NY
2018 Specific Opportunity Stipend, Community Arts Partnership, Ithaca NY
2017 The 2017 Women In Photography (WIPNYC) Grant & Mentor Program Shortlist
2016 PDN “The Look” Winner, Personal Work/Fine Art
2016 Best of Show, MFA Show, Department of Transmedia, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY
2016 Creative Opportunity Grant, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY
PRINT PUBLICATIONS
2021 British Journal of Photography, Book Review
2019 British Journal of Photography, Talent Issue
2017 MFON Women Photographers of the African Diaspora
2017 PDN, September Issue
2016 Blue Library Vol 2: Conversations
2016 Editorial Magazine, Issue 16, A Conversation with Nydia Blas
2016 Oranbeg Press Interleave
ONLINE ARTICLES/FEATURES/INTERVIEWS
2020 Aperture Magazine, “The Photographer Who Spins Black Girls’ Lives Into Gold”
2020 Refinery29, “Magical Photos Exploring The Shared Experiences Of Growing Up As A Black Woman”
2020 British Journal of Photography, “I will forever spin gold with girls”
2019 British Journal of Photography, Issue #7884: Ones to Watch
2019 Aint-Bad, In Conversation: Nydia Blas
2019 W Magazine, Mother’s Day project.
2019 Hyperallergic Magazine, Photographer Nydia Blas and Her “Black Feminine Lens”
2019 Firecracker, Nydia Blas
2019 BuzzFeed News, 13 Emotional Pictures of Young Black Women
2018 Women in Photography
2018 The Candid Frame #422: Nydia Blas
2017 Vogue, Online
2017 Yogurt Magazine, The Girls Who Spun Gold
2017 Capricious, #160:Nydia Blas
2016 Strange Fire Collective, Q&A: Nydia Blas
2016 The Huffington Post, Why Photographer Nydia Blas Only Makes Images of Women of Color
2016 Dazed and Confused Magazine, The Girls Who Spun Gold
2016 Fotografia Magazine/ FotoFirst, Nydia Blas Celebrates the Femininity and “Right to Pleasure” of Black Girls
2016 Streit House Space, Nydia Blas
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2019- Present
Assistant Professor, Art & Visual Culture, Spelman College, Atlanta GA
2018
Instructor, Image Text MFA Program Ithaca College, Ithaca NY
2014-2016
Adjunct Professor, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY
2013-2015
Instructional Assistant (TA), Syracuse University, Syracuse NY
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
2017-2019
Executive Director, Southside Community Center, Inc. Ithaca, NY
2016-2017
Visual Media Arts Director, Southside Community Center, Inc. Ithaca, NY
2015
Instructor, Photography and Literacy (PAL Project), Syracuse University/Syracuse City Schools, Syracuse NY
2012-2018
Art Director, Community Unity Music Education Program, Ithaca NY
2011-2013
Director/Creator, Girl Empowerment Group, Southside Community Center, Ithaca NY
OTHER
2016
Cinematographer, William Kentridge “Triumphs and Laments” for Tevereterno, Rome, Italy