Coreen Simpson

{{Infobox person

| name = Coreen Simpson

| image =

| alt = photo of artist coreen simpson

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1942|02|18}}

| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

| other_names =

| occupation = Photographer
Jewelry designer

| years_active = early 1980s-present

| known_for =

| notable_works =

}}

Coreen Simpson (born February 18, 1942) is a noted African-American photographer and jewelry designer, whose work has an African-American theme.

Early life and education

Simpson was born in Brooklyn and was raised along with her brother by a foster family in Brooklyn.{{Cite journal|last=Birt|first=Rodger|year=1987|title=Coreen Simpson: An Interpretation|journal=Black American Literature Forum|volume=21|issue=3|pages=289–304|doi=10.2307/2904032|jstor=2904032}} She completed Samuel J. Tilden High School in Brooklyn. She took courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design, and studied with Frank Stewart, Studio Museum in Harlem in 1977.{{Cite book|title=A history of women photographers|last=Rosenblum|first=Naomi|year=2000|publisher=Abbeville Press|edition=Second, updated and expanded|location=New York|pages=253, 349|oclc=43729073|isbn=978-0789206589}}

Career

Simpson's career launched when she became editor for Unique New York magazine in 1980, and she began photographing to illustrate her articles. She then became a freelance fashion photographer for the Village Voice and the Amsterdam News in the early 1980s, and covered many African-American cultural and political events in the mid-1980s. She is also noted for her studies of Harlem nightlife. She constructed a portable studio and brought it to clubs in downtown Manhattan, barbershops in Harlem, and braiding salons in Queens. Her work's ability to present a wide variety of subjects with "depth of character and dignity" has been compared to that of Diane Arbus and Weegee.Black Women in America, p. 250.

The Black Cameo

In addition to her photography, Simpson also designed jewelry.{{cite web|title=Coreen Simpson|url=http://www.theblackcameocollection.com/coreen_simpson.html|website=The Black Cameo Collection|accessdate=7 March 2015}} Her most notable jewelry collection is known as The Black Cameo (1990). The collection reintroduces the ancient tradition of cameos, but features portraits of black women. The portraits show the great variety of features of black women. Simpson’s goal was that every black women would be able to identify with the portraits within her cameo jewelry.{{cite journal|title=Style Makers; Coreen Simpson, Cameo Designer|journal=The New York Times|date=February 25, 1990|page=A42}} Customers of the Black Cameo collection included Ruby Dee and Oprah Winfrey.{{cite web|title=Museum Trunk Show Event|url=http://www.studiomuseum.org/event-calendar/event/museum-store-trunk-show-2011-05-07|website=Studio Museum Harlem|accessdate=March 7, 2015|archive-date=2015-04-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402165706/http://www.studiomuseum.org/event-calendar/event/museum-store-trunk-show-2011-05-07|url-status=dead}}

Simpson and Avon Products entered a joint venture in 1993 and created the Coreen Simpson Regal Beauty Collection, a budget line of designs which included a moderately-priced African American cameo.{{cite journal|last1=Wilkinson|first1=Deborrah|title=Afrocentric Marketing: Not Just a Niche|journal=Black Enterprise|date=July 1996|page=76}}

Simpson resides in New York City.

Collections

Simpson's works have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Musee de la Photographie in Belgium, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,{{Cite journal|last=Hassan|first=Salah M.|date=March 20, 2012|title='1 + 1 = 3' Joining Forces: Coreen Simpson's Photographic Suite|journal=Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art|language=en|volume=2012|issue=30|pages=44–59|doi=10.1215/10757163-1496462|s2cid=194954042 |issn=1075-7163}} the International Center for Photography, the Harlem State Office, and the James Van Der Zee Institute.{{Cite book|title=Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers|last=Moutoussamy-Ashe|first=Jeanne|publisher=Writers & Readers Publishing, Inc.|year=1993|isbn=978-0863161582|location=New York|pages=172}}

Selected exhibitions

1979: Corner Gallery, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/24/archives/going-out-guide.html|title=GOING OUT Guide|last=Fraser|first=C. Gerald|date=1979-03-24|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-03-19|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}
1998: Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
1998: International Center of Photography, New York, NY
1998: Musée de la Photographie, Brussels, Belgium
1999: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY
2000: Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, DC
2001: Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
2001: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY