I spend most of my time photographing Women. From Senior girls, to expectant mothers, for boudoir and mom’s with their newborns…. I like to say that I focus on photographing women during the most important times in their lives. The three women you’ll see below were first clients and are now friends. Naturally when I posted that I was looking for women to represent prominent women in black history- they were game!

Keeping reading to find out who they are representing and more about each woman and the things they accomplished in their lives.

Ashley as Harriet Tubman (Araminta Ross)

Harriet was born into slavery in March of 1822. In 1849 she escaped from Maryland to Philadelphia and soon after returned to rescue her family. She would eventually save approximately seventy slaves, including family and friends. She always traveled by night, was known as “Moses” and ‘never lost a passenger’ during her travels.

In 1850 the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. This Act required that all escaped slaves, when captured, be returned to their slaves and it also stated that even citizens of free states had to cooperate. After this act was passed Harriet helped guide the ones, she saved, farther north into what is now Canada.

Harriet was the FIRST woman to lead an armed expedition in The Civil War. She guided the raid at Combahee Ferry and helped to liberate more than 700 slaves during that raid.

These photos of Ashley are meant to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Harriet and are what I envision she would look like if she were alive today.

Dellia as Rosa Parks (Rosa Louise McCauley)

Rosa was born in February of 1914. In 1943 Rosa Parks became a member of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and she served as its secretary until 1956.

In 1955, on December 1st, Rosa was riding a crowded city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The driver asked Rosa and other Black passengers to surrender their seats and stand, Rosa refused. She was then arrested and fined $10 for the offense and $4 for court costs, neither of which she paid. Instead, she accepted Montgomery NAACP chapter president E.D. Nixon’s offer to help her appeal the conviction. Over the next calendar year the buses were boycotted and suffered great financial loss as 70% of their ridership was made up of African Americans in Montgomery.

On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision declaring Montgomery’s segregated bus seating unconstitutional, and a court order to integrate the buses was served on December 20th of 1956. The boycott ended the following day. For her role in these important steps Rosa became known as the “mother of the civil rights movement.”

These photos of Dellia are meant to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Rosa and are what I envision she would look like if she were alive today.

Jessica as Sojourner Truth (Isabella Van Wagener)

Sojourner was born into slavery in 1797, she was freed in 1827 when New York state abolished slavery. Beginning during her childhood, Sojournor had visions and heard voices, which she attributed to God. In New York City she would preach in the streets, and she joined Elijah Pierson’s Retrenchment Society and eventually his household.

In 1843 she left New York City and took the name Sojourner Truth. Feeling lead to “travel up and down the land,” she sang, preached, and urged her listeners to accept the biblical message of God’s goodness and the brotherhood of man. In the same year, she was introduced to apoliticism in Massachusetts and then spoke on behalf of the movement throughout the state. In 1850 she traveled throughout the Midwest, where her reputation drew heavy crowds. She supported herself by selling copies of her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth,

Encountering the Women’s Right Movement in the early 1850s, and encouraged by other women leaders, she continued to appear before suffrage gatherings for the rest of her life.

These photos of Jessica are meant to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Sojourner and are what I envision she would look like if she were alive today.

I chase light. Sometimes that light is within my large private studio located in Shreveport, LA. Other times, I chase the sun.

I specialize in boudoir, maternity, newborn and family photography.

Shreveport Portrait Photographer - Women of Black History - by Leslie Whitaker Photography

Ashley as Harriet Tubman (Araminta Ross)

These photos of Ashley are meant to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Harriet and are what I envision she would look like if she were alive today.

These photos of Dellia are meant to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Rosa and are what I envision she would look like if she were alive today.

These photos of Jessica are meant to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Sojourner and are what I envision she would look like if she were alive today.