Represented by:
PARISTEXASLA
desk@paristexas.la
Ali Rahman Talib LeRoi was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois during the turbulent 60s, a time that gave birth to black activism and empowerment movements that resonate even today, fifty years since they were conceived.
His love of photography began with the photojournalism he admired in Life Magazine and further inspired by the familiar, yet slick, images of Ebony and Jet Magazine. From those early investigations, Ali found the inspiration to execute his own street photography in the visual vernacular of Blackness; images centered on depictions of black people rapt in the grandeur of their humanity, beset with complex narratives, far-expanding familial ties and the latency of desire. Black men, women, and children fill his frame with their hopes, dreams, and experiences that extend beyond an all too familiar framing of black life as one monolithic struggle and a singular pain. His imagery offers representations of the variety of black experience, the black space, broken yet thriving, and a portrait of a people in search of their place to call home. His work can be described as a gesture, one that allows the viewer to witness a subject in a manner that might enable deep introspection.
Having begun his career in Chicago as a comedian, he ultimately transitioned into work as a television and film writer/producer and director. Ali is also a practicing musician, with photography being his latest expression in an evolving passion for art.
Ali has won an Emmy, including five nominations. He’s won two NAACP Image Awards, was nominated for a Golden Globe, a Writers Guild Award, and has been recognized by the American Film Institute for his outstanding achievements in television.
Ali has also served on the Board of the Producers Guild of America, is currently a board member of the Los Angeles Center of Photography, and holds the current chair as President of The Humanitas Prize, a non-profit organization that awards and promotes the craft of television and film writers.
Originally from Chicago, Ali LeRoi currently lives in Los Angeles.