Laylah Amatullah Barrayn is an independent documentary photographer from Brooklyn, New York. Her work explores social bonds and collective histories around subjects as varied as resistance movements in West African Sufism to queer identities among Black women in New York City. With her grant, she will focus on issues specifically related to women in post-conflict Casamance, Senegal, including entrepreneurship, disability, family, and their involvement in the peace initiatives that resulted in the 2014 ceasefire. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and published in the Washington Post, Colorlines and Exposure: The Journal for Photographic Education, among other publications.
