Press & Published Works

Russell Frederick’s two year documentation of the 1932 Negro League stadium in Patterson, New Jersey

Russell Frederick appearance and art featured on the Amazon Original series “Harlem.” Season 2 Episode 8

Ray Wimley, the Freestyle Savant artist - ‘Black Power Time’, inspired by Russell Frederick Photography

Privelege menswear shoot by Russell Frederick

“Photographer Russell Frederick is known for capturing images of the social and cultural diversity of Brooklyn. Russell recently was found out he has advanced glaucoma that left him blind in one eye and faded vision in the other. NBC News’ Rehema Ellis shares his story of resilience.”

Frederick had two options: Either give up photography– his lifelong passion– or adjust to his new limitation of seeing the world now with one eye. He started to learn braille, while working on sharpening the acuity of his other senses. “As I still continue to make photos, I have embraced the other visual languages of storytelling in curating, producing, directing and more.” 

As Russell Frederick began learning about photography, he observed a discrepancy between the image and reality of Black life. “I picked up the camera to tell stories of my community, which I felt has been maligned by misrepresentation,” he says. 

“Biggie's skills grew with time and practice. Donnell White, Melvin Blackman's son, says he used to go to Biggie's house and see his competition notebooks. He wasn't supposed to hang out with Wallace, who was involved in selling drugs. White remembers seeing pages filled with lyrics and being impressed with the young rappers dedication. To many, it was a game. To Biggie, it was art…”

“For nearly a quarter of a century, Russell Frederick, a Brooklyn-based photographer and activist, has documented moments of quiet dignity, family love and everyday joy in the lives of Black and Brown people as part of his “Positive Images” campaign. His photos serve as a powerful rebuke to the dehumanization of Black and Brown lives..”

Over the past two decades, self-taught photographer Russell Frederick has established himself on his own terms, refusing to compromise his integrity for fortune and fame.“I wanted something more than money — I wanted purpose, happiness, legacy, make a difference in the lives of others,” said Brooklyn, New York’s, native son..

Russell Frederick is a Brooklyn-born photographer of Panamanian heritage who has been photographing almost twenty-five years. He is best known for his photographs of the African diaspora of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, a project he began in 1999…

Brooklyn based photographer and Vice President of Harlem’s Kamoinge Collective, Russell Frederick, set out instead to capture the nuances of a community that was pushed to the front of the global stage overnight.

When Russell Frederick quit the healthcare industry to be a photographer, he absorbed himself into the psyche of what we see.“Photography, from the beginning, was weaponized against us,” he observes. He applauds Frederick Douglass, who desired Black people to be ‘seen, not caricatured’. Frederick realized how media and the global perception of us is centered around photography. “The way I photograph us is specific and strategic.”

“Dushane started managing community gardens in the neighborhood more than 10 years ago as a qualified urban farmer, helping seniors with garden maintenance. While researching the nutritional value of the the foods stocked at the neighborhood’s grocery stores, she found the food coming into Brownsville typically only had between zero and 10 percent of its nutrient value..”

He pioneered a new modern vision in fashion. This is the story of Dapper Dan. Photographed by Russell Frederick.

“What makes someone American? How do you define American identity? When do you feel most American? Or least? Nine American citizens describe their struggle to belong in a nation that both embraces and rejects them. Watch a video selected at random or choose a name.”

More than half a century after the groundbreaking exhibit “The Negro Woman,” the image announcing the show by the African-American collective Kamoinge still captivates. “With this exhibition we are showing our love and appreciation to our mothers, wives and sisters,” said Russell Frederick, a co-organizer of the exhibition and Kamoinge’s vice president..

The photographer Russell Frederick began documenting life in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant 17 years ago. His beautiful, sometimes moving, sometimes funny, sometimes meditative, always striking shots of the neighborhood's African-American and other ethnic minority residents are black-and-white..

Photographer Russell Frederick is best known for his documentation of Bedford-Stuyvesant, a historically black neighborhood in Brooklyn. His work portrays the neighborhood's residents as they face the encroachment of gentrification and captures the sense of an impending exodus…

In 2015, Russell Frederick produced and taught at the UNESCO sponsored multimedia workshops in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Pan-African Workshop for Professional Media Production united some of the finest people from the African diaspora to teach over 250 Africans in three fields of media production: photojournalism, feature writing and filmmaking.

“A Brooklynite by birth to Panamanian parents, Frederick started out studying architecture and nursing but decided to take one photography class at the International Center of Photography and quickly fell in love with taking pictures…”

Russell Frederick has been documenting the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn as part of an ongoing project since 1999. Mr. Frederick, 40, is a member of  Kamoinge, a New York-based collective and is working on his first solo exhibition “Black.”