I’m Yolanda Hoskey—an artist, a documentarian, and a Black woman from East New York who tells stories because I have to.
My work lives at the intersection of care and confrontation. I use photography, film, and creative direction to explore what it means to be seen, to be remembered, and to belong—especially when the world has tried to erase you. I focus on Black life not just because it’s mine, but because it’s layered, expansive, and too often flattened or ignored. My art resists that. It listens. It lingers. It makes room.
Growing up in the projects, I saw beauty that didn’t match the images I saw on TV or in magazines. But it was real—joy in small rituals, pride in how we dressed, resilience that wasn’t just survival but style, swagger, and love. That memory-making shaped me. It taught me that visibility is political, and that the archive of our lives is sacred.
I care about this work because it’s not just art—it’s preservation. It’s legacy. Whether I’m photographing trans joy, Black familyhood, female bodybuilders, or veterans in Mississippi, I’m always asking: What happens when we’re the ones holding the lens? I create to honor, to witness, and to shift the narrative.
I don’t make work for spectacle. I make work to feel. To remember. To imagine better.
