Avery Craig: Documentary Photography and Community

Avery Craig is a photographer and multi-media artist, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Originally aspiring to be a filmmaker, Craig found his way towards photography as a way to channel self-expression through both his photographs and the process of making them. While his work is rooted in documentary practices, his process expands beyond simply making a photograph; he deeply immerses himself in the communities he is photographing.

Craig works with the Bronx Documentary Center, further developing his documentary practice of portraying realities based in community engagement. His most recent and ongoing body of work has been centered around a family living in the Melrose Houses in the Bronx. Over the past few years, Craig has developed an intimate connection with this family, a connection that is apparent through his raw and personal photographs portraying the lives of this family, specifically the lives and perspectives of the children. This series of photographs offers not only a unique perspective of this family’s experience, but also Craig’s own presence, perspective, and emotional connection within the work. Throughout his time studying at Bennington College, Craig has built similar relationships with underprivileged communities in Bennington, Vermont, continuing his collaborative, community-centered approach to photography.

How did you first get introduced to photography?

“I think it started mostly in middle school. I wanted to get into film and video and I was watching this movie called Sleepaway Camp, a great movie , the summer before ninth grade and I just told myself, I want to do that. I asked my parents for a video camera and when I got the camera I realized it’s hard to make films, you kinda need a lot of stuff. When covid happened I was in this in-between state and I started to bring my camera outside and photograph because it seemed easier.”

What inspired you to continue photographing?

“Well, whenever I make a photograph, I feel as though I am expressing myself through the eyes of others, and for me, self-expression is something that is, um, you know, vulnerable, self- expression is something that is hard for me. So, in a way, I’m almost avoiding my own self-expression while photographing others, but then again, my photographs basically express myself too.

What are you most drawn to photographing?

“I’ve been interested in documentary work for the last year. I’ve been trying to subvert usual ways of documenting with the work I’ve been doing with kids and families in the Bronx and in Bennington where I’ve been working with underprivileged communities.

It’s all about just trying to give someone the space to represent themselves fully and giving back to the communities that have been historically misunderstood.”

What is the collaborative process between you and the people you are photographing?

“I think it’s an evolving collaboration that I am trying to work on. I think that subversion is the hardest portion of my work. You know, you’re not making a new wheel, you’re just making it better.  That is something I think about a lot. How do you subvert what is already there? How do you make something into the fullest that it can be? Even within a photograph there is always the frame that is constraining the lives of people and the boxes we put people into. Transcending someone from trying to find out who they are and making them into what they are constantly.”

Can you talk about your  current project you have been working on and how it started ?

“ I’m working with a family in the Bronx currently. I met this family in November of 2024. I was walking around about to begin an internship at the Bronx documentary center and met these three kids that were sitting around with their broken bike. I asked them if I could make a photograph of them because I was just trying to talk to people that were living in the area and get a sense of what the South Bronx is like, what Melrose is like. As I had begun to do this internship, by chance, I had seen these same kids at least three times within the next couple of months and then they invited me into the crib. Since then, I’ve been honoured to gain a close relationship with the entire family and now I’m just trying, like I said, to give them a space so that they can represent themselves through photography.”