RAIN BERMUDEZ

Born in Guatemala City. Raised in Brooklyn. Carried by Garifuna blood — the drum was never a choice, it was an inheritance.

For twenty years I've lived between two instruments: the djembe and the camera. One keeps the rhythm, the other keeps the record. I've played rooms with Stevie Wonder, Kanye West, Sting, and Diplo. I closed Oprah's final show. Every stage taught the eye, every frame taught the hand.

My photography is witness work — Black life in New York City, the street, the sacred, the unguarded moment. Published in ZEKE Magazine. Exhibited at Trilok Gallery and Wilmer Jennings Gallery.

From the 2020 uprisings to the everyday resistance of the street, my camera stands with the movement — not beside it. Activism isn't a subject I cover. It's the ground I stand on.

My book, The Black Live Collection Vol. 1, archives Black resistance and resilience in 2020 New York.

I don't separate the artist from the documentarian from the musician. The camera and the drum are the same prayer. This site is where all of it lives.