Karen Spicer is a Philadelphia-born and Northern California-raised photographer, multidisciplinary designer, and artist whose photographic style is characterized by vibrant, dynamic imagery that captures the essence of live events, music culture, fashion, beauty, and urban life.

Her three-piece series explores the ongoing dialogue between past and present. Karen examines Atlanta as both a creative capital and a shifting site of return—a city shaped by global influence and reverse migration from the North back to the South. She documents its rhythm through music photography and environmental portraiture, echoing how music has long carried narratives, joy, and hope across generations of Black Americans, strengthening community and cultural continuity.

Atlanta is a city in flux, where cultural memory (“Old Atlanta”) and reinvention (“New Atlanta”) exist side by side. Cranes in the sky and mid-rise buildings mark its transformation, offering visual cues to the tensions between development, displacement, and preservation. Karen’s work reflects that duality, capturing moments of expression, resilience, and creative energy in spaces where history and revitalization collide. Her work honors Black cultural memory and celebrates the dynamism of contemporary artistic and cultural expression.

Through the lens of music, fashion, culture, style, and place, her body of work seeks to capture the joy, beauty, dignity, and complexity of the human experience. From live performances to backstage moments and city streets, she highlights the energy and diversity of the people and environments she photographs. Her use of collage, double exposure, bold color, and candid composition brings a sense of immediacy and emotional depth to her work.

Karen holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons the New School for Design and a BA in Law and Society from the University of California, Santa Barbara.