Kerry Stuart Coppin, a.k.a. Olufemi, was born on May 22, 1953 in Peekskill, NY. He passed away at 68 years old after a long illness on April 17th, 2022 in Providence, Rhode Island where he resided since 2003.
Kerry was a beloved friend, teacher and artist.
Kerry grew up in the South Bronx, NY and attended The High School of Arts and Design in NYC. He is a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology BFA (1975) and received an MFA in Photography from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1977 where he was the student of Ray Metzker, Harry Callahan, and Aaron Siskind.
Kerry was a fine art photographer and devoted teacher who received numerous fellowships, awards, and was widely exhibited both in the United States and abroad. Selected works of his are included in the permanent collections of: The African American Museum in Philadelphia, The Art Institute of Chicago, Biblioteque Nationale de France, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Museo Francisco Manuel Oller y Cestero in Puerto Rico, The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, and the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C..
As a Professor of Photography, he taught at Columbia College in Chicago, University of Maryland, University of Hawaii, Rochester Institute of Technology (tenured), Kansas State University, University of Miami, and lastly at Brown University.
Kerry photographed and traveled extensively in the United States, Africa and the Caribbean in an effort to “not only attempt to interpret and record my experience, but also to participate in an ongoing debate on the fate and shape of the black cultural experience.”
“My photographs… are not documentary photography. My photographs are interpretations, testaments, and poems. They are indictments! Not the first, nor the last, in an ongoing debate – the means by which people of African descent will restore our histories and cultures to their rightful place in the world.”
Kerry’s legacy will live on in his photographic images and through his teachings to his students.
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