James C. Lewis and Naked Black Justice

James Cornelius Lewis, a native of Statesboro, Ga., earned his bachelor’s in visual communications from the Art Institute of Atlanta. After working in advertising and marketing for 10 years, Lewis launched his own photography and creative studio in 2008, Noire3000, in Atlanta. Naked Black Justice is a campaign Lewis started to address racial injustice.

“My role with this campaign is to bring awareness to the issues of racism, prejudice and overall ignorance targeted at blacks in American and abroad,” he says. “I have assumed the role of a modern day griot of sorts to share my story and the stories of others with the masses to bring about a change in our society.”

I am the sole conceptual creator of this project. I photographed every person, painted every saying and documented every segment of video footage.

I have been faced with those who try to put me in a certain category simply based on my race. I find that it’s one of those situations of … “You’re black, so clearly you’re ignorant, or you didn’t attend college or you probably have a felony on your record.” When the truth of the matter is I have a college degree, I am a business owner, I’m very intelligent and I don’t have any type of criminal history at all.