courtney coles, "left arm," 2025

courtney coles is a Black-American photographer and leatherdyke who was born and raised in Sylmar, California. She received her MFA in Photography & Media from California Institute of the Arts in 2019 and her BFA in Photography from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2014. Alongside her art practice, coles has made photographs in the music industry and portraits for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Substream Magazine, idobi Radio, Highlight Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle and Hopeless Records. In 2022, she was part of a package with the Wall Street Journal that was a Pulitzer Finalist. coles’ first solo exhibition in Los Angeles was at No Moon LA in 2022. She has been included in group exhibitions at Manos Amigues, Mexico City; Plummer Park, West Hollywood; the Punk Rock Museum, Las Vegas, NV; The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles; and the Vincent Price Art Museum among others. coles is currently an Adjunct Professor of Photography at Cypress College.