Lily Brooks

Lily Brooks is an Associate Professor of Photography and serves as Photography Area Coordinator and Chair of the Department of Visual Art + Design’s Curriculum Committee. She teaches photography courses at all levels as well as senior project and professional practice classes. Lily co-wrote ART3200 Art + the Environment with Ernie Milsted, Professor of Printmaking. Taught out of Southeastern's Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station since 2023, the course encourages interdisciplinary, field-based research informed by real-world experience in the Manchac ecosystem.

Lily’s lens-based studio practice is rooted in long-term research projects and often examines the ways power and vulnerability define our experience of the climate crisis. Her work has been featured in publications such as the Oxford American, NPR’s Weekend Edition, and the Los Angeles Times; she has also recently been commissioned by the New York Times and the UK’s Financial Times. Brooks was named an Edward Schlieder Endowed Professor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies for 2022-2025, has received grants from organizations such as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, and has exhibited her photographs widely. Lily lives and works in Baton Rouge and was a member of The Front, an artist-run project gallery in New Orleans, from 2020-2025. She holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art + Design.