Clarence Williams was born in Philadelphia and received his B.A. in Mass Communications from Temple University in 1992. He began his career as a photography intern with the Philadelphia Tribune, later working as staff photographer for the Times Community Newspaper, METPRO, and then for the Los Angeles Times. Clarence Williams has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for Feature Photography. Williams is a founding member of the Iris Photocollective.