# @sfmoma on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DWHuMqbktkd
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/60695965-sfmoma-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/ce29fba9de.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-03-20T21:03:44.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** SFMOMA (@sfmoma) — https://gondola.cc/sfmoma

## Caption

Remembering Nona Faustine and how, just as her artworks teach us, even in death Black life leaves not just traces but immense presence. 
 
Nona Faustine was a photographer, but also a conjurer. A proud New Yorker, Faustine passionately researched Black history across her city and then marked significant sites with her body. Her photographs channel her conjurings to raise ignored histories of people of African descent and honor ancestors. 

Our Assistant Curator of Photography, Delphine Sims, reflects on Nona Faustine: 

“I was brought here to stay.” This was the title of a lecture Nona Faustine gave at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 2019. It was the first time I met her. Invited by artist Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle, the same year Hinkle was a SFMOMA SECA Awardee, I was in awe of Nona and my ongoing determination to support her and her necessary artwork became even more steadfast.  

At dinner following her event, she posted on social media, as she often did in response to life moments, politics, popular culture, etc. She captioned a picture of me and a fellow graduate student: “Berkeley Phd Candidates, who will be writing scholarly about my work, humbling exciting amazing![…] Eternally grateful! It takes a village to raise an artist. You will find your people. These are mine, the next generation.”  

Nona manifested our relationship, that of art historian/curator and artist. I interviewed her; we sent many thoughtful emails; I would write about her photographs. Now, as an Assistant Curator at SFMOMA, I ushered her work into the permanent collection and organized a gallery to extol her and focus attention on her artistry.  

In the exhibition “(Re)Constructing History,” there is a bench before Nona’s artworks, a humble offering to encourage us to sit and contemplate the histories her photographs and writing surface, and to reflect on the legacy of an extraordinary artist. In many ways, Nona Faustine is “here to stay,” and we are eternally grateful for her. #NonaFaustine #ContemporaryPhotography #BlackHistory

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## Tags

contemporaryphotography, nonafaustine, blackhistory

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