Fern Logan

Photographer and Mixed Media Artist

2025 3Arts Awards

Visual Arts

Fern Logan (she/her) has been showing widely since the early 1970s when she emerged as a promising photographer from the Apeiron Photographic Workshops. Her work was included in the groundbreaking exhibition, Reflections in Black: Contemporary African American Photographers at the Brooklyn Museum. Fern Logan’s artworks are included in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian Institution, The Harlem State Office Building, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Michigan Technological University, and Depauw University.

Fern Logan is Professor Emerita of Cinema & Photography at Southern Illinois University. She has also taught Photography and Graphic Design at Elmhurst University and Michigan Technological University. Her book The Artist Portrait Series, which includes portraits of prominent Black artists such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett and Jacob Lawrence were published by Southern Illinois University Press in 2021. Logan was recognized for this work with grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and The Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. Her work with digital imagery was previously honored with two Illinois Arts Council Fellowship awards and one finalist award.

“My creative journey is my lived experience as a Black woman in Western society. I have faced oppression, silencing, sexual harassment, and the constant pressure to shrink myself to fit within systems that were never built for my freedom or flourishing. For much of my life, I was denied a voice, both explicitly, and implicitly. Art has become the way I reclaim that voice. It allows me to affirm my existence, express my uniqueness, and step fully into my truth. This process has not been linear. It has taken years to unlearn internalized limitations and begin to embrace who I am—fully, unapologetically. Through art, I have found a path to healing, self-discovery, and empowerment. I have also come to recognize the weight and impact of generational trauma that affects many African Americans, including myself. My work often reflects this understanding—not as a wound, but as a sacred thread that connects past, present, and a brilliant future. By honoring that history with acceptance and hope, I create a space for transformation and healing. My artwork is both intuitive and intentional. I become a channel when I create, attuning myself to the energetic flow that exists within and beyond me.

I work with mixed media, symbolic forms, organic textures, and layered imagery to express themes of identity, resilience, connection, and spirituality. The process itself is a ritual—one that grounds me and allows me to convert personal and ancestral pain into visual stories of power, presence, and possibility. I believe that art has the power to restore what oppression tries to erase: identity, connection, and truth. My goal is to create work that not only reflects my own journey but also opens a portal for others to reconnect with theirs.”

Fern Logan's Website