EARLIE HUDNALL, JR.

b. 1946, Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Growing up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Earlie Hudnall, Jr. learned the importance of community and culture and photography. His father was an amateur photographer, and his grandmother kept the family albums filled with valuable snapshots.

After returning from his tour-of-duty in Vietnam, Earlie Hudnall moved to Houston to study at Texas Southern University. There, he continued his interest in photography. While studying art, he met one of his most significant mentors, John Biggers, the painter and muralist that depicted African American life in the South. He had impressed Earlie to make art that was drawn from his own experiences. His images capture communities much like the one in his home- town of Hattiesburg. Earlie’s strongest work was made in Houston.

Earlie Hudnall’s images have been widely published. And his photographs are included in many major museum collections in the United States and Europe, including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Art Institute Chicago and the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

Artists have been influenced by Hudnall’s work, including James Laxton, the Cinematographer of the 2017 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Moonlight. Also, Tyler Mitchell, Brooklyn based photographer, film maker and Rahim Fortune, a writer, curator and photographer based in Texas.

Earlie Hudnall has continued to photograph and print his own work. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Visual Arts by the Art League Houston in 2022. With that honor, a monograph was published, Earlie Hudnall, Jr.: Drawn to Communities.