The Image Festival Amman

“You never forget the death of your father. I’ve been living with it daily for the past 57 years.” I said this to a young Yemeni photographer, Sadiq, who shared his moving project honoring the death of his father. Such was the level of intimacy and intense sharing I recently experienced during a powerful three-day workshop I led with a group of young Arab photographers attending the Image Festival Amman, in Jordan.

Teaching and mentoring provide deep rewards and help build community. Whenever I’m able to cross national, cultural, religious, and generational boundaries, the experience is especially enriching. This workshop – which brought together participants from Palestine, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, France, Germany, Jordan, and Morocco – was emotional and seemed to reflect shared themes.

The participants’ work revolved around issues of displacement, loss, longing, and transition. I wonder if this thematic alignment is connected to the region their stories and personal experiences emanate from. I was struck by how closely aligned their personal projects were.

Abeer, who is from Yemen, spoke about how, as a woman, she cannot travel within Yemen or leave the country without a male escort. Her project seeks to capture the emotional landscape of fleeing that sense of entrapment and now living more freely in Jordan.

The three young Palestinians brought warmth, energy, and spirit. Given the impossibly difficult circumstances in the West Bank, where they come from, I was deeply moved. It reminded me that we must look beyond the headlines and remember that people – even in the most trying situations – are resilient and far more than statistics, headlines, or victims.

For this dispatch, I’d like to share an image and short text from each of the participants—not only to honor their work but to offer glimpses of our shared human experience, which I believe many of my readers will resonate with.

Photography and the exchanges it facilitates continue to prove its ability to empower, inspire, and connect our world.

Featured Photographers: Valentin Valette, Haitam Nsais, Roger Anis, Mohanned Al-Sudani, Ali Zaraay, Abeer Aref, Sandro Basili, Ahmed Buttma, Sadiq Al-Harasi, Hassan Saleh, Nael Khmais, TJ Daenhardt

© Valentin Valette | Ashes of the Arabian’s Pearl

Sons of Omani entrepreneurs pose for a portrait in their neighborhood reserved for local investors. Qantab, January, 2023, Sultanate of Oman.

© Haitam Nsais | The Atlantic Balcony

The Atlantic Balcony in Larache, Morocco, is a historic seaside promenade offering stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean. Built during the early 20th century when the city was under Spanish control, it features European architectural influences. Over the years, it has become a favorite spot for locals and visitors alike. The terrace is considered a symbol of Larache's history, providing a peaceful retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city. It has also become a venue for celebrations and social gatherings. Locals take pride in preserving it because it represents the city's history and its vibrant spirit today.

© Roger Anis | Where is the Bride of the Nile?

A villager from one of the communities surrounding the Tis Abay waterfalls walks to his land. These villages, deeply connected to the river, rely on the waterfalls as their primary source of water for daily needs, as there is no infrastructure to bring water directly to their homes. Despite Ethiopia's vast water resources, nearly 61% of its population lacks access to safe drinking water.

© Mohanned Al-Sudani | When Life Met Death

Amid the silence of the sunken marshes in southern Iraq, specifically in the area of Ashn Al-Hallab in the Hammar Marshes, lies the skeletal remains of a buffalo that was once a symbol of life and abundance in the wetlands. This buffalo had become stuck in the mud after water levels suddenly dropped. Its heavy weight—which once gave it an advantage in the struggle for survival—became an unbearable burden. It couldn’t escape and remained there, alone, in a remote area unreachable by foot, slowly dying in a silence heard by no one. Over time, its flesh decayed under the sun and mud, leaving behind only bones—a scar that bears witness to the wounds of the marshes. In a later season, the waters returned, flooding the area again, as if to embrace what remained of life—to meet the life that once was, and the death that had settled there.

© Ali Zaraay | Crawling on the Dust

Crawling on the Dust is a long-term project that began in 2017, documenting the lives of nomadic Bedouins in Egypt’s Delta. Through the story of Haj Hani’s family across generations, the project explores the social and spatial memory of Egypt’s nomads—their alternative narratives of “home,” their relationships to land and animals, and the ways they resist marginalization, underrepresentation, and systemic oppression by “crawling” as a form of resistance. It also examines how Egypt’s ongoing changes—new roads, bridges, and urban sprawl—impact not only urban populations but also threaten the traditions and livelihoods of Haj Hani’s nomadic community in the Delta.

© Abeer Aref | Seventh Foundation

A view from the moving car's window, mountains and trees, and a flying bird. From the road from Sana'a to Aden, 25 February 2024 

© Sandro Basili | Sednaya Prison

Families waiting outside Sednaya Prison rush toward the main gate of the prison as it opens, desperate for any news about their loved ones. Syria, December 10, 2024.

© Ahmed Buttma | Hasan Mustafa, The Torchbearer

Hasan Mustafa from Battir protected his village during the 1948 Nakba by creating the illusion that it was still inhabited. His plan scared off Zionist forces and prevented the villagers from being displaced. His daughter later founded a cultural center to preserve his legacy. Here, she shows the magazine that he was the editor of.

© Sadiq Al-Harasi | What Do Fathers Leave Behind?

A photograph from the family archive captures my father standing with me and my siblings in Jabal Saber, Taiz, in the year 2004. 

© Hassan Saleh | Last Clog Maker

In the Old City of Nablus, Haj Walid Khudair (71), known as Abu Khaled, works in his carpentry shop in the Qaysariyya neighborhood in the West Bank. He has spent over 55 years crafting wooden clogs since he was 15 years-old at his family-owned workshop in Lydd. Dating back to the Fatimid and Ottoman eras, clogs were essential in homes and public bathhouses. But the Israelis' restrictions on cutting pine trees have made it extremely difficult for the craft to continue. "This craft is about to go extinct. I am the only one practicing it still. It's a craft without a future,” says Abu Khaled.

© Nael Khmais | A Ray Beyond the Wall

This image tells the story of a people who continue to stand against injustice. It encapsulates the Palestinian reality with all its painful details. The separation wall, stretching like a scar across the body of the land, stands as a witness to the cruelty of occupation and the isolation of people from their land and history. The military tower in the frame symbolizes constant surveillance and control imposed by force. Yet, from the cracks in the wall, a ray of sunlight breaks through the darkness. It is a ray of hope—of a freedom that may be delayed, but it is coming. The light shining through the solid openings sends a message: no wall can block the sun, and no occupation can suffocate the Palestinian dream. This image is not just a photograph… it is a cry, a document, and a visual testimony to a reality that must never be forgotten.

© TJ Daenhardt | Incense and History

Incense smoke fills the alleys of the old city of Jerusalem, 2024.

Eyes on Main Street 10th Anniversary

A Crossroads of Cultures

The 10th edition of Eyes on Main Street launched on June 1st in Wilson, NC. For 100 days, 100 photographers from 39 countries will have their work displayed on 100 storefront windows, walls and buildings, spanning nine city blocks. 

I’ve had the good fortune to participate in 3 of the 10 festivals that took place over the last decade, including this current exhibition. I must commend Jerome De Perlinghi, the curator and mastermind behind this initiative. The concept of this festival is a beautiful thing - to have photographers from all over the world contribute images that reflect what we see in our daily lives. The things that we might take for granted on the main streets of our towns, in our cities and communities. The images reflect both the extraordinary and the ordinary moments of daily life, which is one of the powers of photography.

I urge folks who might be traveling to North Carolina in the next 100 days (June 1, 2024 - September 9, 2024) to check out this exhibition and experience this creative use of photography that embodies some of the most powerful aspects of public art.

Learn more at https://www.eyesonmainstreetwilson.com/

The Game of Life

A multimedia project exploring family ties, baseball, and the immigrant experience

I’ve always had a restless type of creativity, wanting to push the bounds of photography and photojournalism, and to seek new ways to use my photographs as storytelling. In 2006, I created one of the first “flipbooks” based off my photographs taken in Iraqi Kurdistan on assignment for National Geographic. The photographs were edited together in a rapid, filmic succession creating a collage-like portrait that would foreshadow my venturings into the video world.

A few years later, in 2012, I would go on to create “Photojournalisms”, blending over 20 years of photographs with journal entries to my wife, Julie Winokur.

In 2017 I decided to create a non-linear, immersive video incorporating my vast video and stills archives, to create The Enigma Room, which premiered in 2019 at Photoville in NYC and has since been shown around the world.

Last year, I decided to venture into the unknown once again, this time creating a series of multimedia collages with my studio. The process that organically developed in my studio has exemplified the beautiful collaborations that are possible when open minds and creative desires are mixed. What started as a simple goal of producing collages out of archival imagery from my family, images of my son playing baseball, which was a 17-year period, and new images I made by photographing some of my son’s baseball ephemera, developed into a 3-way collaboration between myself, Mike Curry and Mei Seva. 


The process started with me creating original combinations of digital images, which were enhanced and modified on Photoshop by Mike Curry. Mei Seva then added 3d materials like seeds and bubblegum, as well as liquids such as vaseline and shaving cream, to "paint" the printed out collages. The mixed-media collages were then photographed to create the final image.

All of the materials used to create the collages relate directly back to baseball and are used by baseball players all over the world. These include: pine tar, chalk, beard oil, sunflower seeds, body butter, shaving cream, vaseline, chalk, eye black, spider tack, bubblegum, and gripping spray.

These collages express my relationship to baseball, my son, my immigrant family, and the murky memories of a first-generation American’s childhood. It’s also an exercise in something I cherish about the creative process, collaboration. 

The final pieces represent a visual memoir of my obsession with baseball, my family, and being an assimilated immigrant.

Saigon on Wheels | Rediscovery through the Archive

I recently went through my vast photographic archive, packing boxes upon boxes of tearsheets, prints, books and more, in preparation for an upcoming handover to the Briscoe Center for Documentary Studies. This was a bittersweet process for me as I looked through decades of my photographic work, but the sense of loss was accompanied by a profound attachment to the many stories I’ve had the privilege to capture with my camera.

One of the many boxes I packed included prints from a story on the motorbike craze in Saigon in the 90’s. These black and white prints were well-preserved and had survived two decades of storage. As I rifled through the prints, I realized many of these images were not a part of my official archive of my best photographs — which I refer to as the “DA”, or Digital Archive. But as time passes, so does our perception of images. I was able to rediscover many photographs I had brushed aside before.

This whole process led to my studio scanning negatives and new additions to the DA, expanding my initial edit for this story, and resulting in a new online gallery: “Saigon on Wheels”.

-Ed Kashi

The Forgotten Faithful | Arab Christians in the Levant

On assignment for National Geographic | Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon

2008

 

One of the least reported cultural stories in the Middle East today involves the plight of Arab Christians—some eight million people living mostly in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. These are the remnants of indigenous Holy Land communities dating back 2,000 years who were among the first Christians in history. Their culture is ancient, distinctive, and colorful, shaped by their remarkable ability to survive the upheavals of Middle Eastern history. Yet Arab Christians are now in danger of vanishing from the region altogether, driven out by a rising tide of religious and political extremism. Attacks on Christians are up dramatically from a decade ago, prompting a huge wave of out-migration. Besides uprooting families and communities, this trend is also having an adverse impact on the Arab world: Christians tend to be the best educated and most modernized citizens of their home lands—the progressive voices in the political arena as well as successful merchants and traders. In short, the people Arab society can least afford to lose.  This story looks at the Arab Christians in the Levant.

George Eastman Museum: Artist Talk on Abandoned Moments

George Eastman Museum | Rochester, New York

On November 17, 2022, I gave an artist talk at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York on my Abandoned Moments photobook, which contains photographs shot from the hip in a unique style of photography that I have developed over the years. It was a pleasure and an honor to be at the Museum, which contains one of the oldest film archives in the world.

You can watch the full lecture above.

Abandoned Moments: A Love Letter to Photography Abandoned Moments: A Love Letter to Photography Abandoned Moments: A Love Letter to Photography
Abandoned Moments: A Love Letter to Photography
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The Revival of Analog Photography

by Mei Seva

Photographs by Mei Seva, taken with a Pentax K1000

Analog photography is making a major comeback, propelled by young photographers enamored by its dreamy colors and less-than-perfect resolution.

In a way, it's a rebellion against modern life. Today's generation grew up with technology embedded into every aspect of their lives, carrying around high-quality cameras from an early age. Film cameras have come to represent a break from the norm – a "detox" from digital life. 

The popularity of film photography has grown in recent years for a variety of reasons, with the media, influencers, and younger generations all playing a significant role.

Celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid are at least partially responsible – frequently sharing fuzzy film photos with a natural, organic look on Instagram, a rebellion of its own against Instagram's carefully curated, highly produced look.

Jenner even brought her film camera to the Met Gala in 2018, using it to photograph candid shots of her famous friends and fellow attendees.

And popular shows such as HBO's Euphoria, have also opted to use film – a stark contrast to 99% of the major films and television shows produced today. The second season of Euphoria, which averaged 16.3 million views, was all shot on Kodak Ektachrome film. 

This was such an unusual request, so far from the norm of the film industry, that the series creator, Sam Levinson, had to reach out to Kodak to see if it would even be possible to get enough of the film stock to shoot the entire series in the 35mm format. According to Levinson, Kodak had to convert parts of its factory to make his request possible. The result is one of the most popular shows in recent years, known for its outstanding and masterful cinematography.

Shots from HBO’s Euphoria Season Two

Because of this rise in popularity, the price for analog cameras and film has jumped.

The 35mm Ektachrome film is back in production, after production was completely halted in 2011 due to decreasing demand.

The price of a Contax T2 (Kendall Jenner's camera of choice) is now averaging at $800+, the highest point since the 90’s.

Harman Technology (the company that manufactures Ilford films) and Kodak, in particular, have seen steady growth in sales over the past five years.

Film photography is in no way poised to dominate the market — those days are long gone. But you can't deny film is experiencing a major resurgence.

Besides the "coolness" of analog photography increasing, lending itself naturally to higher interest among the younger generations, there are other reasons that explain the new-found interest in what is seen by most in the industry as an outdated and impractical way to shoot.

Analog photographs provide a fresh look, and when done right, an almost nostalgic and ethereal quality to photography and video. After hours of scrolling, whether it be on our laptops, phones, or streaming providers, analog film simply stands out. It is not the norm, which gives it a more unique aesthetic – and the rarer something is after all, the more we desire it.

One can even make the argument that such interest in film photography is a valuable learning opportunity for young photographers and videographers. After all, instead of using a memory card that holds hundreds of images and videos, using a film camera forces a more mindful approach. There is a deliberativeness that film requires when you only have 24 or 36 frames per roll. This forces more careful consideration of what to frame in your shot, and when you actually press down the shutter. This is an essential element of learning photography – that deliberative composition is what produces, in most cases, a compelling image. 

In a culture where we are inundated with a never-ending onslaught of choices, analog film's restrictions, in a way, are freeing. The results aren't perfect. There are light leaks, maybe the focus is off. The shots don't come out exactly the way you had in mind. But that's what makes every click of the shutter that more important and special.

Mei Seva
Studio Manager

Anderson Ranch Mentoring Program Graduates | Part Two

Over the past seven years, I’ve had the great privilege to create, with Jim Estrin of the New York Times, a unique and incredibly powerful mentoring program at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado.

The Center for Advanced Mentored Studies is a three-year mentorship that is part of The Center, and the goal of this program is for participants to create books, exhibitions, websites, films, large bodies of photographic work and in one case, possibly a major documentary or narrative film. Being a part of these cohorts’ journeys over the past few years has been one of the most rewarding teaching experiences of my life and provided a significant opportunity to mentor with depth, commitment and vision.

Along with Andrea Wallace, the Vice President of Artistic Affairs at The Ranch, Jim and I have worked with four different groups, each over a three-year period, to create the most unique and powerful community I’ve experienced in my role as a teacher and mentor. Some of the brightest talents in our profession have passed through this program, going on to win World Press and Pictures of the Year International awards, get hired by the likes of the Washington Post, National Geographic, The New York Times and much more.

Applications are now open for two new sections of this three-year program. If you’re interested, please go to this link to learn more. Jim and I are thrilled to have the continued opportunity to be a part of something that is so deeply serving for both the cohorts and ourselves.

I’ve decided to showcase some of the work of recent participants below. Please check it out and stay tuned for more!

TW: violence, rape, sexual assault, fatphobia

Rosem Morton

Rosem Morton is a Filipina photojournalist, nurse and safety trainer based in Baltimore, Maryland. As a visual journalist, she is a National Geographic Explorer whose work focuses on daily life amidst gender, health, and racial adversity. She documents issues such as the effects of gender-based violence, the unheard stories of healthcare workers, and the legacies of western colonization that have shaped Filipino culture and migration. Her work has been awarded the Leica Women Photo Award and the Visa d'or Daily Press Award. She has also been recognized by the Pictures of the Year International, the World Press Photo 6x6 Talent and the 30 under 30 list. Morton has worked at major trauma centers as a registered nurse for the last 10 years. She draws on these experiences alongside the IWMF Next Gen Fellowship to provide holistic safety trainings for journalists.

Her project DearSurvivor.org is designed to build community, support and resources for survivors of gender and sexual violence alongside their allies. This platform hosts a growing audio-visual collection empowering survivors through the expression of their own narratives. These stories seek to highlight survivor experiences, illustrate the prevalence of sexual violence, and question how we can break this cycle. The site offers free access to resources, workshops, a podcast, photo series’, workbooks, sharing spaces, and more.

Shelby Knowles

Shelby Knowles is a freelance photographer and photo editor at The New York Times in San Francisco. Prior to moving to California, she worked as a multimedia producer and editor at Newsday, where she was awarded an Emmy for Sports Photographer for her documentary, "Empress.” Knowles received a Master's Degree from the University of Texas at the Austin School of Journalism in 2018, and a Bachelor's of Science in Nutritional Science from Texas A&M University.

Her project examines fat camps in America and the ramifications on youth's mental and physical health. The framework parallels the diet industry’s “before and after” approach –– The “before” portion of her project will show the current experience of attending fat camp, and the “after” is a curated series of disposable cameras taken by former campers capturing their experiences through self-documentation. The project raises the question: “are there any good fat camps in a fat-phobic society?”

Roddy MacInnes

Roddy MacInnes has been teaching photography at the University of Denver since 2001. He considers himself to be an autobiographical photographer. In that capacity, he has been documenting his life through photography since 1964. He received a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a Bachelor of Arts in Photography from Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

His latest photography project, Intimate Proximity, was inspired by an album of photographs he discovered in an antiques mall in Denver, Colorado. A North Dakota woman made the photographs in 1917. Through this project, MacInnes is exploring issues surrounding the relationships between photography and community.

Sebastián Hidalgo

Sebastián Hidalgo is a civically trained independent photojournalist and National Geographic Explorer based in Chicago. He has reported on issues ranging from family separations due to harsh immigration policies to the lasting psychological toll of gentrification. His main focus revolves around the intersectionality of restrictive zoning policies that contribute to conflicts across the country. Hidalgo's approach to photojournalism has been recognized by numerous newsrooms as “setting the standard of community journalism”. His photographs have been permanently collected at The Library of Congress, the National Museum of Mexican Fine Art, and The Harvard Art Museum.

His latest project titled, Public Heroes and Secrets, (a reference to Roberto Bolaño's relatable poem, Godzilla En Mexico) documents how new industrial revitalization plans have jeopardized the health of thousands in Chicago's predominantly Mexican and working-class community, Little Village. From 2020 to 2022, he collaborated with civic journalism labs to examine the political events leading up to a botched implosion that covered the area in a cloud of toxic dust. While his reporting looked into industrial zoning changes, his photographs provide an intimate look at the cumulative impacts (stress and pollution) of residents. Today, he continues to research and photograph.

Rachel Wisniewski

Rachel Wisniewski is an independent photojournalist and writer based in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Her work often explores stories at the intersections of community, identity and trauma. She is a contributor to publications including: Reuters, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, and more. She was a Gwen Ifill Fellow through the International Women’s Media Foundation in 2020, and received a National Geographic Society Grant in 2021. Beyond photography, Wisniewski is passionate about volunteering, traveling, reading, and food. When she doesn't have a camera in her hands, it’s probably because she's eating pizza.

Her project L’dor Vador (‘From Generation to Generation’) documents the experience and pressure of coming-of-age as a Jewish person by focusing on a specifically Jewish American ritual: sleep-away camp. In following Jewish young women as they form their identities, L’Dor Vador will stir conversations within the Jewish community about how to preserve our culture in an increasingly changing world, and challenge stereotypes and misconceptions held by the non-Jewish community.  

The essential connection between photography and painting

by Mei Seva

I picked up a camera at an early age, and by the age of 14, I carried it by my side at all times. Despite loving photography, I always had an interest in other art mediums. Taking advantage of an experimental education thanks to Hampshire College, I took classes in sculpture, collage, printmaking, film/video (including shooting and developing with an actual Bolex camera!).

While dappling in different mediums, I stayed away from painting. I was too intimidated by it. I can’t paint, I thought. That’s for “real artists”, you know, the ones that can paint realistically, I told myself.

Multiple years later, I decided to quit my advocacy non-profit job after being disillusioned with politics following the chaos of the 2020 election. I had free time, and I had spare paint, and so I decided to paint. Why not? I was especially inspired to learn that Van Gogh didn't start painting until he was 27 — a fact that would shock most familiar with his work.

Little did I know I would quickly fall in love with painting and all it had to offer. And little did I understand the longstanding connection between the two mediums. 

“According to some historical hypotheses, that relationship started a long-time ago in the paleolithic era of our kind; but not precisely as an intentional occurrence. Thanks to some archeo-optical experiments made by Matt Gatton, it is accepted that some optical effects can take place during specific moments of the day thanks to light passing through random tiny holes in tents and caves, producing something we now know as “camera obscura”. And it was through these light-borne images, that humanity was first introduced to the possibility of representations, the same which later inspired paleolithic visual depictions in caves.”

Via Visual Culture Magazine


When photography was first developed in 1826, the artist Paul Delaroche famously declared, “Painting is dead.”

The next few decades would result in a struggle between the two mediums. In 1842, a magazine writer noted that "the artist cannot compete with the minute accuracy of the Daguerreotype." By 1859, essayist Charles Baudelaire was denouncing photography as "the mortal enemy of art."

But this competition between the two mediums ultimately freed painters from the ever-nagging quest of realism. It gave artists more opportunities to let loose and experiment. After all, why attempt at realism when a camera could capture a scene more realistically than a painting ever could? This freedom resulted in the art world moving away from realism and shifting towards impressionism, dadaism, abstractionism, etc.

In later decades, the pendulum swung the other way perhaps, and so we've seen many painters shift towards a style known as "photorealism” — which uses the incredible detail of the photographic image as a reference for intensely realistic and detailed paintings.

Photographs have long served as reference images for many painters (myself included). While plen air painting (direct observation) is still widely known to provide a better understanding of colors and depth for artists, reference photographs are essential tools painters use to mimic light conditions and to measure correct proportions, both of which are essential in figurative painting.

Take famous painter Norman Rockwell. He frequently constructed “sets” in his studio and had a photographer take pictures for him to use as reference later.

Degas’ reference photograph for his painting Blue Dancers.

Paul Gauguin, during his second stay in Tahiti, used photographs of models to create his paintings.

(It's essential to note that reference photos, most of the time, except in the case of photorealism, serve solely as jumping off points for many artists. Painters frequently adapt images, change colors, combine multiple images into one, and more to fulfill the artistic vision in their head.)

And yet many artists, especially 19th and 20th century artists, did not admit to using photographs to create paintings – it is extremely rare to find even a mention of photography in relation to their work. This has changed as photographs have become a more vital and accepted part of the artistic process.

Photography and painting are forever interconnected. No longer are artists tied to the limitations of what we can perceive in the natural world. Photography has allowed for the unleashing of artists' imaginations and revolutionized all of art. And artistically, the two mediums share many similarities. Both use the ideas of composition, color, subject, and form to create a visually compelling, 2d image. They are like long-lost fraternal twins, forever separated, but undeniably similar once you look closer.


Mei Seva
Creative Director + Studio Manager
Ed Kashi Studio


Anderson Ranch Mentoring Program Graduates

Over the past seven years, including the disruption from the pandemic, I’ve had the great privilege to create, with Jim Estrin of the New York Times,  a unique and incredibly powerful mentoring program at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado.

The Center for Advanced Mentored Studies is a three-year mentorship that is part of The Center, an initiative overseen and developed by the great Andrea Wallace, Artistic Director of Photography and New Media, and Chair of The Center. The Center also has three-year programs for ceramics, sculpture, digital fabrication, and painting. 

When Andrea, Jim and I first came up with this program, the basic idea was that to produce anything of significance you needed a substantial amount of time to do it, as well as the support of a cohort, expert training, plenty of feedback and a safe space to express yourself. Somehow we have managed to accomplish that, in large part because of the great people who have passed through this program. In the end, the goal of this program is for participants to create books, exhibitions, websites, films, large bodies of photographic work and in one case, possibly a major documentary or narrative film. Being a part of these cohorts’ journeys has been one of the most rewarding teaching experiences of my life and provided a significant opportunity to mentor with depth, commitment and vision.

Along with Andrea, Jim and I have worked with four different groups, each over a three year period, to create the most unique and powerful community I’ve experienced in my role as teacher and mentor. Some of the brightest talents in our profession have passed through this program, going on to win World Press awards, get hired by the likes of the Washington Post, National Geographic, The New York Times and much more.

Early next year, in 2023, The Ranch will be announcing two new sections of this three-year program. Jim and I are thrilled to have the continued opportunity to be a part of something that is so deeply serving for both the cohorts and ourselves. If you’re interested, please go to this link to learn more.

I’ve decided to showcase some of the work of recent participants below. Please check it out and stay tuned for more!

TW: addiction, violence

September Dawn Bottoms (she was, in fact, born on a September dawn) is a self-taught photographer from Oklahoma. She focuses on women’s and social issues, and also endeavors to explore her family through photography to better understand the effects of intergenerational trauma. In June of 2020 she joined The New York Times as a Photography Fellow. She was also a 2020 Joop Swart Masterclass Participant.

Juan Diego Reyes is a documentary photographer based between Colombia and Asheville, NC. His project Strangers In Their Own Land examines the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations in the American South through a human perspective in connection to the environment and the relationship with the concept of identity.

Rory Doyle is a freelance photographer based in Cleveland, Mississippi. He was a 2018 Visual Artist Fellow through the Mississippi Arts Commission and has exhibited in New York, London, Atlanta, Mississippi and beyond. His work has been published in The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Washington Post, POLITICO, ProPublica, ESPN, The Guardian and numerous publications.

Modifying on the Mississippi is an ongoing project that highlights the constant changes taking place on the lower Mississippi River, from St. Louis all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. The body of work focuses on the landscape, history, culture and industry that define this iconic American river. The project grows as Doyle continue to work along the river, and he has also included images from his archive, dating back to 2009 when he first moved to the rural Mississippi Delta.

Maria Contreras Coll is a National Geographic Explorer and a documentary photographer and visual storyteller based in the Empordà region, near Barcelona, Spain. She sees photography as a tool for transformation and as a personal quest, she is committed to highlighting how women are transforming patriarchal notions and social structures in within religion and spirituality. With a collaborative approach and combining long-term practice and research, she captures people’s stories intimately.

After finishing her degree in Fine Arts in Barcelona, she joined a postgraduate degree in Photojournalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona as a valedictorian. She spent the next year working on the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, traveling and living in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, Greece, France, Germany, and Morocco. She lived in Nepal between 2017 and 2018 to document how women are transforming menstrual restrictions in the country. She is currently exploring the concepts of women and religion thanks to the support of the National Geographic Society and studying Narrative Practices by Collectivo Mexico.


Christopher Michel is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. His appointment is focused on leveraging visual storytelling to elevate the work of scientists, engineers and medical professionals in society.

Chris graduated from the University of Illinois and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an honorary Doctorate from Tiffin University. Chris serves on the board of Dale Carnegie and Catchlight, a non-profit focused on supporting photographers and innovative leaders in the field of visual storytelling. Chris is also an advisor to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and a member of the Explorers Club.

Ginna McGee Richards is a photographer, historian, and environmental lawyer who lives in North and South Carolina. Her wet-plate collodion photographs have been exhibited at the Light Factory in Charlotte, North Carolina (2018, 2019), and the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina (2022). In March 2022, the Smithsonian Magazine published her documentary work on “The Inner Passage" of colonial America as a feature article with author Imani Perry.


The Inner Passage documents an ancient hand-dug waterway that was constructed by enslaved men through the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia in the late 1600s. In this series, photographs made with the wet-plate collodion process create not only a historical record but also a visual poem, allowing us to explore our own understanding of the past.

Nicole Craine is a documentary filmmaker and photojournalist with a focus on sociopolitical issues in the southeastern United States. Nicole serves on the Advisory Board of Everyday Projects and  is the founder of Everyday Rural America, a social media project dedicated to featuring stories from communities and storytellers working outside of cities and urban areas. She is a regular contributor to New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Redux and Associated Press. Her work has been featured in New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Marie Claire Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, ESPN, and the Intercept.

Her project Kinfolk takes an intimate look back at five generations of her family knotted together with violence, substance abuse, imprisonment and poverty.

Trey L. Broomfield is an internationally exhibited artist from El Paso, Texas, USA, working primarily in digital photography, video, and spoken word. In 2015, Trey graduated from New Mexico State University with a Bachelor's in Fine Arts. Much of Trey's work draws inspiration from artists such as Hank Willis Thomas, Bayete Ross Smith, and Shepard Fairey conceptually and formally. His work often speaks on the relationship between media, language and disenfranchised communities.

These Words Are Everything explores language in relation to troubled and incarcerated youth, with concepts such as linguistic relativity along with mental health and social disparities acting as reference points. Through the pairing of audio, photography, and poetry the goal of this project is to amplify the voices of the youth and break the stigma of incarceration.