LeRoy Henderson

LeRoy W. Henderson, Jr., born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1936, is a celebrated American photographer renowned for his documentation of social and political movements from the Civil Rights era to the present. Growing up in the Washington Park neighborhood, he was influenced by his experiences working odd jobs for local artists, including Adele Clark, a prominent painter and suffragist, whose studio inspired his creative pursuits. At the age of twelve, he purchased a Brownie Hawkeye camera, which he used to photograph model airplanes he had built. After graduating from Maggie Walker High School, he continued his studies at Virginia State University, where he received a bachelor's degree, and continued his studies at the Pratt Institute, where he earned a master’s degree. He also attended the School of Visual Arts to study photography and film.

In the 1960s, Following military service in Germany, where he worked as a cryptographer, Henderson returned to the U.S. and dedicated himself to photojournalism. Influenced by photographers like Gordon Parks and Walker Evans, he sought to produce work that not only represented events but also told the stories of the individuals involved. Throughout his career, Henderson captured key moments in Black history, such as the Poor People’s March on Washington and antiwar protests in New York City, and photographed influential figures such as Stokely Carmichael and Muhammad Ali. With these and other images, Henderson often provides a unique perspective that highlights the human experience.

Henderson’s work gained wider attention when he contributed work to The Black Photographers Annual in the 1970s. Since then, his work has been widely published in magazines such as Black Enterprise, Essence, Jet, Newsweek, and New York magazine. Henderson’s work has been shown in many one-person and group exhibitions, including the landmark exhibition Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968, organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. His photographs are held in several prestigious collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Henderson’s career spans over five decades, and his work continues to offer a nuanced reflection of American society’s struggles, hopes, and resilience. His images reflect his dedication to visual storytelling, embodying the spirit of the era and the stories of those often overlooked. As he has said, “Most of us, we’re not looking for photographs as we walk around. But my motivation as a photographer and an artist is to be able to see the things that other people don’t see.”