Liam Woods: Photographing Queer Black and Brown Life

Liam Woods is a Trans and Non-Binary photographer working in Los Angeles, making images of Queer Black and Brown communities on their own terms. In six years Woods has shot for Levis, Apple, and Adidas, and their work has appeared in Vogue, Paris, and The New York Times. The résumé is real, but it isn't the point. The point is who's in the frame, and how they're seen.

Woods' photographs are candid and intimate, drawn from their own life and from stories shared across Queer and BIPOC communities. Off camera, they push against the industry's gatekeeping and work to get other BIPOC and Queer creatives hired and represented. Their partnerships with brands and media outlets have created over fifty jobs for Black creatives so far.

The work is personal. Woods is Black, openly Trans, and Non-Binary, and photography became the place where they could reclaim the story — a way to picture worlds built on inclusion, liberation, and unconditional love. Their influences run through '90s and early-2000s pop culture and series like "Sex Education" and "Insecure," and you can see it in the pictures: warmth and vulnerability sitting side by side.

One project, "A Part of Me, Is A Part of You," was shot on an iPhone 13 Pro Max and follows Black trans life in Portland, Oregon — the strength of that community, and its beauty, documented plainly. It's a good example of what a photograph can start.

Woods also runs the Black Creatives Workshop in LA, a space where Black creatives get resources, support, and room to sharpen their craft. It's a direct answer to an industry that too often stops at tokenism.

During Black History Month, Woods' work is worth sitting with. Their photographs show Queer Black and Brown people as they are — seen and valued — and argue, frame by frame, for a world that does the same. That's what a camera can do in the right hands.