Ebony DeGrace's portfolio

Work samples

Children in the Water (Held by the Block)

From the Memories collection.
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011
Crooklyn/Do The Right Thing Inspired (September 19th 2022)

Inspired by Spike Lee's Crooklyn and Do The Right Thing; the warm tones of the image that emulates a hot, Summer day, along with the little girl in the photo as the highlight and focal point; a resemblance of the precocious and observant/perceptive Troy Carmichael.
Baltimore, Maryland
September 19th 2022
Between the Room and the Sky I

From The Universe Knows Her Name collection
April 2nd 2021
Her Flowers

BCAN’s (Baltimore Creates) ‘We Own This’ brunch in partnership with Alpha Female Fest.
Outside of Mera Kitchen Collective.
Baltimore, Maryland.
February 26th 2023.

About Ebony

Ebony DeGrace is a Baltimore-based photographer whose work centers lived experience, memory, the everyday landscapes of Black life, and the other-worldly/spiritual. Her practice began in middle school through black-and-white film photography, where she developed a commitment to candid observation and quiet documentation.

Working primarily in natural light, Ebony creates images that move between documentary intimacy and perceptual exploration. She describes her… more

Memories, 2011 (I)

Memories, 2011 (I) is of the Memories collection; nostalgic keepsakes from a previous period in time that embodies the quintessence of living in Baltimore City and in Maryland more broadly across eras. The photographs carry remnants of a life moving through familiar spaces while linking everyday environments and fleeting moments across time.

Through visual observation, Ebony captures ephemeral instances even when subjects notice or acknowledge the presence of the camera. Taken in 2011, the images now hold the realization that each person photographed is more than fourteen years older. Their younger selves remain suspended in time, preserving who they once were and a version of a life once lived.

Together, the photographs represent the heart of the city and of Maryland as a whole alongside the everyday people who inhabit and inhabited the landscape they knew and know as home.

Fremont Ave & Lexington Street

Poppleton Place
Baltimore, Maryland
July 20th 2011
Children in the Water (Held by the Block)

Poe Homes (aka Lexington Terrace)
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011
Children in the Water (II)

Poe Homes (aka Lexington Terrace)
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011
Children in the Water (III)

Poe Homes (aka Lexington Terrace)
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011
Children in the Water (IV)

Poe Homes (aka Lexington Terrace)
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011
Children in the Water (V)

Poe Homes (aka Lexington Terrace)
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011
Children in the Water (VI)

Poe Homes (aka Lexington Terrace)
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011
Children in the Water (VII)

Poe Homes (aka Lexington Terrace)
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011
Boys on the Court

Poe Homes (aka Lexington Terrace)
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011
Lone Boy on the Court

Poe Homes (aka Lexington Terrace)
Baltimore, Maryland
July 24th 2011

Memories, 2011 (II)

Memories, 2011 (II): A continuation of Ebony's collection, Memories.

Boys in the Yard (I)

Somewhere in Maryland
May 29th 2011
Boys in the Yard (II)

Somewhere in Maryland
May 29th 2011
Boys in the Yard (III)

Somewhere in Maryland
May 29th 2011
Boys in the Yard (IV)

Somewhere in Maryland
May 29th 2011
Boys in the Yard (V)

Somewhere in Maryland
May 29th 2011
Boys in the Yard (VI)

Somewhere in Maryland
May 29th 2011

Memories, 2011 (III)

Memories, 2011 (III): A continuation of Ebony's collection, Memories.

PJ (I)

The Terraces
Baltimore, Maryland
May 30th 2011
PJ (II)

The Terraces
Baltimore, Maryland
May 30th 2011
PJ (III)

The Terraces
Baltimore, Maryland
May 30th 2011
PJ (IV)

The Terraces
Baltimore, Maryland
May 30th 2011
PJ (V)

The Terraces
Baltimore, Maryland
May 30th 2011
PJ (VI)

The Terraces
Baltimore, Maryland
May 30th 2011
PJ (VII)

The Terraces
Baltimore, Maryland
May 30th 2011

Memories, 2012

Memories, 2012: A continuation of Ebony's collection, Memories.

Blue Hour, Last Light (I)

Columbia, Maryland
June 24th 2012
Miles in Blue Hour (I)

Columbia, Maryland
June 24th 2012
Miles in Blue Hour (II)

Columbia, Maryland
June 24th 2012
Miles in Blue Hour (III)

Columbia, Maryland
June 24th 2012
Blue Hour, Last Light (II)

Columbia, Maryland
June 24th 2012

The Universe Knows Her Name

In The Universe Knows Her Name, Ebony explores perception, interiority, and the body’s relationship to light and space. These photographs were created by positioning the camera above the artist as she lay on her back with her hands extended toward a television screen displaying cosmic imagery. The final images were rotated 180 degrees; additionally, some images were horizontally mirrored. The images produced an optical illusion in which the figure appears upright and suspended, as if floating toward the illuminated screen. In subsequent variations, light is refracted through prisms and layered across the face, further bending orientation and dissolving the boundary between body and atmosphere. The rotation becomes not only spatial but perceptual, destabilizing gravity while maintaining stillness.

By reorienting the frame, the work disrupts spatial logic while remaining grounded in a lived domestic environment. The bedroom becomes both physical setting and psychological landscape. Blending documentary presence with surreal abstraction, Ebony uses light, shadow, and stillness to suggest ascent without spectacle. The cosmos functions as both image and atmosphere, evoking interior expansiveness within an ordinary room.