Rising Stars: Meet Margaret Cheatham Williams

Today we’d like to introduce you to Margaret Cheatham Williams.

Hi Margaret Cheatham, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I ventured into Fine-Art photography after an almost decade-long career as a photojournalist at The New York Times. It was there that I produced stories that touched on the intersection of personal identity and family. I still continue to take a journalistic approach to my photography, collecting imagery of decaying structures as well as various other finds and characters. The work I create is an interpretation that edges toward romanticism, rooted in the backroads of my youth in North Carolina and the people I encounter along the way.

I had a babysitter who graduated from the photojournalism program at UNC-Chapel Hill. I visited her at school with my family and took immediate notice of her travels, interesting projects, and I soon set out to try something similar. I was a sophomore before I learned the technical aspects of photography and credit much of my career to my professors at UNC. While I was a senior in Chad Stevens’ documentary class, I chronicled my grandmother’s last days with Parkinson’s Disease. (https://vimeo.com/17652928) I am a graduate of Saint Mary’s High School and UNC-Chapel Hill.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Photojournalism is an exceptionally difficult field to break into, and I certainly struggled. I was not the strongest photographer in my class, but I was deeply committed to the craft of storytelling, which I practiced through a series of several internships. I received a string of rejections before I was hired at the Times. Even in my nearly seven years at the Times, I still was consumed with nerves before every story. Each time before I knocked on a door to meet a participant or to conduct an interview, I would sit in my car and drink hotel coffee until the exact minute I was supposed to arrive. I never quite got over the initial agnst, but every single story was incredibly formative, and I have had the opportunity to meet some phenomenal people.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At the moment, I am focused primarily on Fine-Art photography and have recently opened a gallery in San Francisco’s Presidio Heights neighborhood. As I traveled in my documentary filmmaking career, I began experimenting with medium format film on an ancient Mamiya 645 I bought on eBay. It was a way for me to slow down and explore a different medium, and I was enamored with documenting decrepit spaces and places that were part of the fabric of rural areas, especially in North Carolina. As in my documentary work, I pride myself on storytelling, and I like to imagine the past characters that inhabited the spaces I photograph.

In 2018, I piloted Conception, a highly visual and lyrical exploration of the myriad ways that people become parents and the journey that ensues. This is arguably the work I am most proud of and has greatly informed my decision to become a parent in June of 2021! (https://www.nytimes.com/video/conception)
Links to other works: http://www.mcheathamw.com/selected-works

This Time/Marshall Project collab is about the three Muslim students that were murdered in Chapel Hill and were from the Raleigh area: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/02/18/anatomy-of-hate

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I have had many incredible mentors. I had a babysitter who graduated from the photojournalism program at UNC-Chapel Hill. I visited her at school with my family and took immediate notice of her travels, interesting projects, and wanted to explore a career in journalism as well.

Many years later, I was hired to work at the NYT. She eventually became my boss and my greatest advisor. I still consider her an incredible guide in journalism, but more importantly, in my personal life. Photojournalism is such a small community, and many of my earliest acquaintances have become some of my most staunch mentors. My internship advisor of sorts at the LA Times later also became my manager at the NYT, and she too was (and remains) someone I return to often for advice.

As far as networking, I am constantly in touch with those I work with and admire. I am exceptionally specific with those I reach out to, and I do not generally make blanket requests of people’s time. It is incredibly time-consuming and an act of love to respond to questions from young people or those looking to make moves in their career, and I am more often than not happy to do it – but “how did you get your job?” is rarely productive. I attempt to make my work and my role in projects as accessible as possible and hope to maintain professional relationships with even those I may disagree with or have clashing work styles (It’s a very small field!).

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected], [email protected]
• Website: www.moxiesdaughter.com, www.mcheathamw.com
• Instagram: @moxiesdaughter, @mcheathamw
• Twitter: @mcheathamw

Image Credits
Portrait in gallery and gallery images: Ella Sophie, https://www.ellabessette.com/ Portrait in studio behind lights: Leslye Davis, https://www.leslyedavis.com/ Other images by Margaret Cheatham Williams