Matt Black is TIME's Pick for Instagram Photographer of California

"His powerful, black-and-white images bring the reality of poverty into people's pockets, offering a stark reminder of our country's fragile social fabric." TIME writers, Olivier Laurent and Lucia de Stefani, wrote about Matt Black, selected by TIME LightBox as the California photographer to follow on Instagram.

Black is among the 50 photographers featured on TIME's "Instagram Photographers to Follow in All 50 States."

After spending two decades focusing his lens on issues of poverty, migration and farming in California's Central Valley, Black expanded his project to the extreme economic hardship throughout the rest of the country. This summer, Black embarked on a cross-country trip to explore, document, and spark discussion about contemporary poverty and growing income inequality in the U.S., for his Pulitzer Center-supported project, The Geography of Poverty.

Read Laurent's earlier interview with Black. In 2014 TIME named Black Instagram Photographer of the Year.

To view photography from all 50 photographers, see the TIME's website. You can follow Black on Instagram at @mattblack_blackmatt