Dudley M. Brooks

Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Dudley M. Brooks was a former photographer and the Deputy Director of Photography for The Washington Post, where he managed the creative strategy and production of photo-oriented content for the Features, Metro, and Sports departments. He was also the Photo Editor for The Washington Post Magazine before it was discontinued in late 2022.

From 2007-2014 he was the Director of Photography and Senior Photo Editor for the monthly magazine Ebony and its weekly sister periodical Jet – both previously published by Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago. These iconic publications chronicled the African American experience for nearly eight decades and Brooks was a key member of the senior staff responsible for redefining the visual prominence and editorial relevance to their international readerships. Brooks was also the Assistant Managing Editor of Photography at The Baltimore Sun newspaper (2005-2007) and a creator/director of the landmark 1990 photography book and exhibition Songs of My People: African Americans – A Self-Portrait. This was an internationally recognized venture that featured the newly commissioned work of 53 photojournalists. It was sponsored by Time-Warner and the Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and was published by Little Brown.

In 2003 he created and co-directed Imagenes Havana. This event encompassed a five-day exhibition in Havana, Cuba that displayed the work of twenty-five international storytelling photographers. It was supplemented by three days of roundtable forums that addressed the difficulties of documenting the intercontinental community, opportunities in photo book publishing, and ethical issues facing the working photographer from a global perspective.

Brooks recently retired from The Washington Post in August of 2024.