The “Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers" (CAAAP) was founded on March 8, 1999 by seven photographers; Leslie Adkins, Bob Black, Martha Brock, Milbert O. Brown Jr., Terry Harris, Brent Jones and Lee Landry. Their initial goal was to document Chicago’s African-American mmunities at the turn of the 21st Century. The main objectives of the organization grew to unify Chicago based professional African-American photographers, and promote the art of photography through exhibitions, lectures and educational programs.

The membership of the Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers is composed of commercial, fine art, freelance, documentary, newspaper photojournalists and amateurs. Their talents cover the full spectrum of photography from street artists and news to studio photography.

Many of our members are established professionals, while others are hobbyists, but all share a common passion for the art of photography and it's power to inform, educate and record history.

Our membership has included three past Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalists, former Chicago Tribune's Ovie Carter, who won the 1975 Pulitzer for International Reporting. Milbert O. Brown Jr. and Carter were members of the Tribune's 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting team. The Chicago Sun-Times' John H. White won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

The original project which united the membership in the year of CAAAP's inception, The Journey: The Next 100 Years, was a photographic project documenting the culture and lifestyles of Greater Chicago's African-American communities at the beginning of a new millennium, the start of the 21st century. Over 50 African-American photographers produced work during the first year of the new century, creating compelling B&W images.

In 2001, The Journey: The Next 100 Years; was a featured photographic exhibition that opened concurrently at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and the legendary community based institution, The South Side Community Art Center, in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Over the next twenty-four months, the exhibit traveled around the Chicago metropolitan area, where the powerful images were exhibited at almost a dozen locations from public libraries, art galleries, universities and museums.

Over the ensuing years CAAAP members and their work have been featured in Chicago’s daily newspapers, from the Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Members have participated in education lectures and exhibits at Loyola University, Northwestern University, University of Illinois –Chicago and Roosevelt University, along with appearances on local media, where they were interviewed on Chicago radio stations, WVON, and WBEZ and television stations, CLTV, NBC-TV, ABC-TV and written about in Vibe Magazine.

In 2006, with funding provided from the Chicago Tribune Foundation and assistance from Roosevelt University and the Chicago History Museum, CAAAP produced and published a book of the project “The Journey: The Next 100 Years”; featuring over 300 images, produced by 70 CAAAP members from 2000 through 2005.

OUR MISSION
The mission of the Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers is:

- To photographically document the culture, society and history of African-Americans, its communities, residents and their ethnic exchange in the Greater Chicago area and throughout the world.
- To promote the work of professional and amateur photographers through sponsored exhibitions, publications, lectures and education in the field of photography, and its related genre.
- To Use our photographic images and expertise to inform the public and our community about the importance of photography as an informative and creative medium of expression.

CAAAP is open to all commercial, fine art, freelance, and newspaper photographers interested in supporting these efforts.

- Malcolm X