ARTIST PROFILE

Who is D. Michael Cheers?

D. Michael Cheers, PhD, is an associate professor of photojournalism in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San José State University. He is a Fulbright Scholar and an award-winning photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. Dr. Cheers earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Journalism and African American Studies from Boston University.  He received his doctorate in African Studies and Research from Howard University, in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Cheers began his career in high school, documenting his community for the St. Louis American newspaper. That early experience led him to create photo essays on the Roxbury and Dorchester communities for the Boston Globe. Thereafter, he became a photojournalist, working nationally and internationally, for Jet and Ebony magazines for more than 25 years. During that time, Dr. Cheers documented townships that included the South African communities of Alexandra, Soweto, and the Cape Flats,  the Southern African country of Mozambique, the rural farming communities in Cape Coast, Ghana, and Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa.

In 2006, Dr. Cheers became a San José State University faculty member. Since then, he has focused his cameras on marginalized African American communities in San Jose. He has produced documentaries and journal articles on the city’s historic Black churches, and drawn attention to other Black community institutions.

Thirty years ago, Dr. Cheers was one of the photographers and an editor on the best-selling book and traveling exhibition, “Songs of My People”. He later co-authored, Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela.

Medium: Photography

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