Gioncarlo Valentine

Gioncarlo Valentine is an award-winning American photographer and writer. Valentine hails from Baltimore City and attended Towson University, in Maryland. Backed by his seven years of social work experience, his work focuses on issues faced by marginalized populations, most often focusing his lens on the experiences of Black/LGBTQIA+ communities. At the core, his work is often about longing for community. So much of his life has been a desire to feel enveloped in a space and included. Much of the work that he makes is a dissection of this desire to belong and the convoluted relationships between his intersections, and how this conflict resonates throughout so many Black and LGBTQ+ people’s experiences. In this way, Valentine uses photography as a tool of reconciliation. He attempts to concoct stories of light and shadow, tenderness and vulnerability, confrontation and unflinching authenticity.