Christopher Creese is a portrait and music photographer and filmmaker based in Washington, D.C. A first-generation Vincentian American raised in Hyattsville, Maryland, he got his first camera at four years old, a Fisher-Price Perfect Shot, falling in love with the medium. He studied video game art and design in college, where the curriculum quietly taught him composition, light, and color. The turning point came in 2015, when his father bought him his first professional body, a Nikon D7100. The gift became the studio.
In 2019, Creese and his wife moved to Tulsa, where work with local nonprofits grew into commissions from the Philbrook Museum of Art, the Bob Dylan Center, and Interscope Records. When the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial brought the eyes of the country to Greenwood in 2021, he photographed it for NPR and Bloomberg and worked unit stills on National Geographic's Rise Again. In 2023, he covered the White House press pool, including the historic Juneteenth Concert on the South Lawn.
In 2024, after losing the father who bought that first Nikon and then his mother, Creese returned home to the D.C. area, where he has photographed The 1619 Project: Born on the Water and made portraits of Joy-Ann Reid and Eric Holder. He is available for commissions and travel worldwide.
Curriculum Vitae
- COMMISSION: EdReports All-Staff Summit, event coverage, headshots and leadership portraits, Washington D.C., 2026
- COMMISSION: The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, Canady Foundation for the Arts, MLK Jr. Library, Washington D.C., 2026
- CONCERT: Chandrika Tandon, Divine Ecstasy Tour, The Barns at Wolf Trap, 2025
- PRESS: White House Juneteenth Concert, for The Black Wall Street Times, 2023
- PRESS: White House championship visits (LSU, UConn), for The Black Wall Street Times, 2023
- EDITORIAL: The New York Times, photo assignments, 2020 to 2023
- CAMPAIGN: Spirit of Tulsa, Tulsa Regional Chamber & Visit Tulsa, 2022 to 2024
- EDITORIAL: The Wall Street Journal, Mansion portrait series, 2022
- CAMPAIGN: Tangled Up in Blue, Bob Dylan Center, Tulsa OK, 2022
- MUSIC: Black Wall Street Legacy Fest, 2022
- DOCUMENTARY: Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial, incl. President Biden at Greenwood Cultural Center, 2021
- EDITORIAL: Tulsa, 100 Years Later, NPR, 2021
- EDITORIAL: Black Wall Street, Bloomberg, 2021
- UNIT STILLS: Rise Again, National Geographic, 2021
- COMMISSION: Philbrook Museum of Art, MIX, 2021
- MUSIC: Fire in Little Africa x Motown Records, Tulsa OK, 2021
- CAMPAIGN: LANY album billboard reveal, Interscope Records, Tulsa OK, 2020