about me.
Billie Carter-Rankin (b.1995) is a visual artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She experiments with photography, darkroom processing, and archived images to explore loss within personal and collective memory. Her work primarily focuses on the absence of information, and the potential that is created as a result of that absence - specifically through the temporality of materials used to memorialize. Carter-Rankin is currently based in Milwaukee, WI.
education.
MFA Candidate in Photography; The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL., USA, 2018-2020.
Photography and Film Studies; Richmond University: The American International University, London, United Kingdom, 2017.
BFA Media, Journalism and Film, Howard University, Washington, D.C., USA, 2014-2018.
awards + residencies.
The Institut für Alles Möglcihe, Berlin, Germany, 2022.
Leon W. Guggenheim Scholarship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019-2020.
David and Grace Rose Scholarship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018-2019.
SAIC Travel Grant, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
SAIC Incentive Scholarship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018-2020.
Bishetta Merritt Award in Blacks in Cinema, Howard University Department of Media, Journalism and Film, Washington, D.C., USA, 2018.
1st Place Recipient in Photography, 87th Annual Howard University Student Art Show, Washington, D.C. , USA, 2018.
Women in Film Finalist, Couldn't Say No, Washington, D.C., USA, 2017.
Legacy Scholarship, Howard University, 2014-2018.
group exhibitions.
Photography Now 2021, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY. 2022.
This Way Home, Alexandria McLin and Billie Carter-Rankin, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL, May 2022.
Launch Exhibition, SAIC Galleries, Chicago, IL. Fall 2020.
Box Box Box Sun Sun Sun, LVL3, Circle Contemporary, Chicago IL. August 2020.
The Future of our Plans, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Summer 2020.
BYOA, University of Illinois at Chicago, Great Space, Chicago, IL. February 2020.
INCUBATOR, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbus building, Chicago, IL, February 2020.
Photographs? Photographs. curated by Kim Seo Hyn Woo, MA Candidate at Pratt Institute. kimseohyunwoo.com/photographs-photographs, December 2019.
An Event in Time, Setouchi Triennial 2019, Shikoku Mura, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan, 2019.
This Is The End?, Candid Arts Trust, Islington, London, U.K., April 2019.
87th Annual Howard University Student Art Show, Armour J. Blackburn University Center, Washington, D.C. USA, 2018.
commissions.
The Guardian, September 25, 2022, photo illustrations for "The forgotten history of what California stole from Black families." by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil
Oxford American, June 17, 2022, photo essay, “On Freedom and Possibility.”
Oxford American, May 17, 2022, photo essay, “You are Where you’re Supposed to Be.”
New York Times Opinion, March 3, 2022, photo illustration for "We Need a New Language for Talking About Race." by Henry Louis Gates and Andrew S. Curran.
TIME Magazine, February 2022, photo illustration for "I Searched for Answers About my Enslaved Ancestor. What I Found was More Questions." by Imani Perry.
New York Times Opinion, photo illustration for "I Needed to Lead My City. But I Needed to Apologize First." Part of A Series of George Floyd and America by Levar Stoney. May 22, 2021.
The New Yorker, December 14th 2020 issue, photo illustration for "Rwanda" by John Edgar Wideman
Contributing artist - International Issue; ROOT-ed Magazine, Liverpool, United Kingdom, 2020.
Editor's choice; ROOT-ed Magazine, Liverpool, United Kingdom, 2018.
blkfatherhood series; Typical Girls Magazine, Brighton, United Kingdom, 2018.
Photographer/videographer; Caged Bird Magazine, Washington, D.C., USA, 2018.
Women's March 2017; WHBC 96.3 HD3, Washington, D.C., USA, 2017.
bibliography.
Meet Billie Carter-Rankin: Visual Artist for Shoutout LA. May 20, 2021.
Turner, Aaron. "In Conversation: Billie Carter-Rankin + Aaron Turner." The Center for Photographers of Color, 15 November 2020.
Roach, Amanda. “Artist of the Week: Billie Carter-Rankin.” LVL3 Gallery, 10 November 2020.
Mansfield, Brontë. “The Details of Life.” School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
Stone, Nyesha. “The Class of 2018: Milwaukee Edition.” Milwaukee Courier Weekly Newspaper, 2 June 2018.
Wang, Grace. “Toxic Masculinity, Black Fatherhood: Typical Girls Magazine Widen Their Scope of Representation.” STACK Magazines, 3 Aug. 2018.
public lectures.
Evolution of Remembrance: Andrea Coleman + Billie Carter-Rankin, Concerned Black Image Makers, March 2021.
Time, Archive, + Memory, Richmond, The American International University in London, London, U.K., October 2020.
2019 Weinstein Fellowship Grad Talk, "Time, Archive, and Memory" The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL., USA, December 2019.
First Year Grad Talk, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL., USA, April 2019.
curatorial work.
SAIC Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, Fall 2019. Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL. November - December 2019.
Envisioning Justice. Illinois Humanities, Sullivan Galleries. August - October 2019.
Post Baccalaureate Studio Annual Exhibition. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MacLean building, May 2019.
SAIC Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, Spring 2019. Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL. March 2019.