Shelia Turner was born on July 2, 1961. She was an Atlanta-based documentary photographer. In the early 1990s she wanted to create a vehicle for Black women photographers to exhibit their work. At the time, the world of photography was dominated by white males. There was no collective of Black women photographers documenting the stories of Black women. Shelia contacted nine photographers that she knew personally, and they all accepted her invitation. The inaugural exhibition garnered critical acclaim. The collective’s next exhibition was held in 1994 under its new name, Sistagraphy.

Shelia passed away in 2018, but her commitment to the relevance and importance of photographic art created by African American women lives on. She is remembered in the Atlanta area for some of her major collections at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ga. and the High Museum of Art. She passed away on April 24, 2018. Shelia Turner was posthumously awarded the Ebon Dooley Change Maker Award by the ArtsXchange in 2018.