Jules Allen (born September 13, 1947) is a photographer[1] and a tenured professor in
the Art & Photography Department of Queensboro Community College, City University of New York, where he has taught for two decades. He was born in San Francisco, California.
He shares the belief of photographer Diane Arbus, who states, “the more specific a thing is, the more general.” The artist, Danny Dawson has said, “Allen has a “keen eye for the obvious” in his lifelong work evocative of the contemporary black experience.[2] His images place subjects drawn from the richness of black life within universal paradigms. They have inspired collaborations with journalists, visual artists, musicians, playwrights, poets, and filmmakers.[citation needed]