Darryl Sivad picked up his first camera in high school.  What he saw through the lens captured his visual imagination. Photography quickly became a means of creative expression. Around that time he saw Miles Davis’ album Bitches Brew.  He was moved artistically by the music and also the album cover art by Mati Klarwein.  Both the music and the art were kind of Afro Surrealism which today informs aspect of his personal photography. Sivad won awards from The Scarab Club and the Detroit Institute of Arts while a student at the Center for Creative Studies and quickly received recognition in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan.

The critically acclaimed photographer Richard Avedon whose fashion and art images he studied through Vogue Magazine inspired Sivad.  Avedon invited Sivad to join him in New York City for a rare opportunity – a two-year internship.  A delay in transitioning from Detroit to New York cost him that opportunity.  However, highly regarded photographer Anthony Barboza did engage Sivad as an assistant.   Sivad was able to assist Barboza during shoots of Arthur Ashe, Romare Bearden, James Baldwin, Geoffrey Holder, Ntozake Shange, Supermodel Beverly Johnson and others.  It was here that Sivad was able to refine his own vision as a photographer.  Ken Barboza was instrumental in teaching Sivad the finer points of running a commercial photography business

Sivad also worked as a freelance assistant for Dwight Carter, Si Chi Ko and John Pinderhughes.  Eventually with Kamoinge Workshop members C. Daniel Dawson, Louis Draper, Herman Howard and Ray Francis he opened Northlight Studio. With the success of his photographic pursuits and images featured in Black Enterprise, Glemby’s International, Women’s Wear Daily, and in publications by McGraw-Hill and others Sivad set his sights on achieving additional goals.

A multi-talented artist and visionary Sivad’s passion for photography continues alongside his career as an actor/writer.  His images can also be seen in the following publications Black: A Celebration of Culture; I Shook Up the World; Saturday Night/Sunday Morning and Black Renaissance/Black Noire.  Sivad has exhibited nationally including most recently at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the Leica Gallery, the Wadsworth Atheneum of Art, The African American Museum in Philadelphia, PA and the California African American Museum.  His work is also in the permanent collections of the Museum of the African Diaspora and the Smithsonian Institute.