Nona Faustine is a native New Yorker and photographer. In 2019 she received the Anonymous Was A Woman Award, BRIC Colene Brown Art Prize, New York Foundation Arts Award in Photography, and was a finalist in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Outwin Boochever Competition. Her work focuses on history, identity, and representation seeks to evoke a critical and emotional understanding of the past, and proposes a deeper examination of contemporary racial and gender stereotypes. Simmons has exhibited her work at Brooklyn Museum, Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Harvard University, International Center of Photography, Maryland State University, Rutgers University, Studio Museum of Harlem, and Tomie Ohtake Institute in Brazil. Collections holding her work include the Brooklyn Museum, Carnegie Museum, David C. Driskell Center at Maryland State University, and Studio Museum of Harlem. Simmons’ My Country series was part of Fantasy America at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg in 2021. Her White Shoes series is part of The Slipstream exhibition at Brooklyn Museum through March 2022.