Photographer Hank Willis Thomas’s work reflects on the symbols of commodity culture and the impact of violence in African American communities. He gained wide recognition with his series Branded, a group of images where he digitally added a scarred Nike logo on different parts of the body of a black model, such as the chest and head. Willis Thomas has exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; PS1, New York; and National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. He is the first recipient of the Aperture West Book Prize, a new annual prize for artists living west of the Mississippi. He lives in Oakland, California. 

Co-presented with Aperture West. The Aperture West Collaborative Series provides lectures given by some of today’s most significant photographers. Generously supported by Freestyle Photographic. 

Go to Hank Willis Thomas's website.