Nora Williams credits her first darkroom photography class for allowing her to appreciate the art of photography.
“That really changed my whole view about photography because all I had known was digital photography and the point and shoot, then the image shows up,” said Williams, who serves as the Assistant Director of Marketing for the Division of Student Affairs and Academic Support.

Williams is a native of the Midlands and earned her undergraduate degree from the College of Charleston. But after graduation, she left the Palmetto State for New York City with photography opportunities in focus. And though that move was cut short by the COVID-19 Pandemic, Williams still boasts an impressive resume with photo credits for the New York Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone Magazine, Associated Press and more.

In 2022, Williams finally made the leap to become a Gamecock, starting as a coordinator for Housing, handling marketing, social media and communications before working her way up to her current role of assistant director for SAAS. Changes to her job meant more responsibility for marketing strategies and overseeing student workers but less day-to-day involvement in social media and taking photos for the division.

But Williams has stayed active as freelancer, shooting events for the City of Columbia and continuing her passion for documentary photography and “covering events that really do something.” That includes key moments leading up to the 2024 election cycle featuring cabinet members and candidate visits to the state.

Now, she is doubling down on being a Gamecock. Williams is currently in her second semester as a graduate student at USC, working towards her Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in photography.

“What impresses me most about Nora is that she brings an intensity and depth to her work. She’s thoughtful, rigorous, and unafraid to wrestle with complexity. There’s a sustained curiosity and empathy in her approach, that has impressed me as I’ve watched her grow as an artist,” School of Visual Art and Design professor Kathleen Robbins said. “She mentors, she advocates, she pushes conversations forward. We are really lucky to have her in our program.”

Williams says she was interested in pursuing a master’s degree not only to teach photography and fine art one day, but also to help inspire more representation in artistic spaces. She is the co-founder of The Carolina Creatives, an organization dedicated to empowering creatives of color across the Carolinas, and a member of Black Women Photographers .

“There’s a lot of African art, but not necessarily a lot of African American art. That’s really changed my view as my work is starting to get into galleries. And I would like to advocate for other people to be able to teach and inspire kids that this is a possibility for them as well,” Williams said.

In the meantime, she is connecting with young people in a completely different way – on the court. Once a high school basketball player herself, Williams joined the coaching staff for the girls’ basketball team at Brookland-Cayce High School this past season. Though the team missed the playoffs, she says it was rewarding to see the young team mature and improve over the course of the season.

“I haven’t started teaching through my MFA program yet, so I felt like this would be a good step to being able to teach younger students and just be able to mentor them,” she said. “We did have a losing streak, but everyone around the team said that they could see that the program has already done a 180  from the previous year.”

You can view Williams’ work on her website, and you can hear from her on March 20 at the Columbia Design League’s DesignHER event at the Columbia Museum of Art.