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Nairobi, Kenya / Takoma Park MD, USA

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About

From the Washington DC area, currently based in Nairobi, Kenya. Just trying to live a creative life - photography, music, teaching, organizing, writing, collaborating with others. It all goes together.

Photography

My work is somewhere between art and documentary.

I learned film photography in my father’s home darkroom in my late teens. After many years as a working photojournalist, I was (re)shaped by many years traveling in Eastern Europe, discovering the world that was hidden while growing up during the Cold War. I was very influenced by Czech photography in particular, a long tradition that mixes surrealism and humanism.

These days I consider myself a reformed photojournalist, mainly pursuing my own long-form photo projects. I’ve had a number of exhibitions, awards, workshops, artist talks, overseas residencies, and in 2012 published my book The Waiting Room - Photographs from Belarus. See below for a list of activities.

In 2015, I was voted DC’s “Best Visual Artist” in Washington City Paper’s reader poll.

Teaching

From 2008 to 2023, I taught photography full-time in the art department at Maret School in Washington DC. Mostly darkroom photography, some digital, also a course in Publication Design. I supervised the yearly arts magazine, which won many awards.

Now that I’ve left that job for Nairobi, I’m focused on independent teaching and my personal projects.

Climate-Art

I publish an email newsletter at viaductarts.com, a kind of digest exploring how artists of all kinds are approaching the climate crisis, increasing fascism, and social justice. Art can’t remove carbon from the atmosphere or oppressors from power, but it has a role to play with helping us believe in the future, rebooting our relationship with nature and the environment, and reconnecting with each other. What can that look like in our work?

I consider myself a climate artist, but first we need to meet at the barricades for democracy.

Music

I always played in bands, now I’m a solo singer-songwriter, whatever that means these days. Yes I sing and write songs for acoustic guitar but I think of it as ‘future-folk’.

My first music project, New World Voyage, produced under the artist alias Místochord, was a concept album complete with 40-page digital booklet, imagining the first humans to leave Earth forever for Mars (a bad idea in my opinion). The hybrid of songs and photography is a thinly disguised manifesto to protect our only home.

The ‘meanwhile back on Earth’ followup is a more stripped-down set of songs with a loose climate change theme, under the working title The Forest and the Trees. I’ve made DIY demos of some of the songs, and they are about half of my live set. I also released a couple of other songs as singles on my Bandcamp page.

Experience

1995 - present Freelance photographer

2020 - present Viaduct Arts salons, COVID concerts, newsletter

2008 - 2023 Photography teacher, Maret School

2006 Organizer/Curator, Chernobyl20 exhibition (at UN)

2004 - 2014 Founding member and Photo Editor, Metro Collective

1999 - 2000 Photo Director, Balkan Times (news website for SE Europe)

Activities

2024

  • Donated photobook library to Kibera Films and Creative Hub - Nairobi, Kenya

  • Guest photography teacher at Kibera Films and Creative Hub - Nairobi, Kenya

2023

  • Left Washington DC photo teaching job after 15 years, moved to Nairobi, Kenya

  • Led documentary photo workshop at Human Needs Project, Kibera - Nairobi, Kenya

  • Mentored documentary photographers, Kibera - Nairobi, Kenya

2022

  • Conceived and produced All-School Art Show website, Maret School - Washington DC

2021

  • Conceived and produced All-School Art Show video, Maret School - Washington DC

  • Organizer, Songs of Solidarity concert - Takoma Park MD

2020

  • Organizer, Roadside Attractions concert series (COVID) - Takoma Park MD

  • Completed Media and Arts for Peace micro-course, US Institute for Peace

2019

  • Organizer, Climate Voices: Artists Respond to Climate Change - Takoma Park MD

  • Member, Takoma Park Arts Commission - Takoma Park MD

2018

  • Organizer, Viaduct Arts house salon series - Takoma Park MD

2016

  • Conceived/wrote/co-produced original full-length music album, New World Voyage

  • Live-score music/video performance at closing party, Fotoweek DC festival - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, Fairy Tales and Fault Lines at Metropolitan Policy Ctr, American University - Washington DC

2015

  • Panelist, FotoweekDC talk: Finding Your Vision - Getting and Staying Inspired - Washington DC

  • Judge, FotoweekDC Photo Competition - Washington DC

  • Member, FotoweekDC Curatorial Committee - Washington DC

  • Publication, District of Change, Washington Post Magazine

  • Publication, The Real DC, National Geographic PROOF

  • Award, Best Visual Artist, Washington City Paper's "Best of DC" reader poll

  • Exhibition, Black Lives / White Light, ReCreative Spaces - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, Black Lives / White Light, ReCreative Spaces - Washington DC

2014

  • Exhibition, Fracking PA: Documentary Practice and Environmental Activism - St Mary's College, MD

  • Artist talk, Fracking PA - St Mary's College, MD

  • Artist talk, National Art Honor Society's Creative Industries Studio - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, How Czech Surrealism Saved Me from Photojournalism, FotoweekDC - Washington DC

  • Collaboration, Notes from the Marcellus Shale fracking project w/ poet Craig Czury - Springville, PA

2013

  • Instructor, Developing a BW Vision workshop at Int'l Photo Society, World Bank - Washington DC

  • Guest Artist, World Views exhibition and lectures - St Mary's College, MD

  • Lecture, E. European Cinematography and Photography, Maret School - Washington DC

  • Presenter, Pecha Kucha slideshow, House of Sweden - Washington DC

  • Award, Tallinn, 2nd place, Contemporary Life category, FotoweekDC Awards - Washington DC

  • Exhibition, Tallinn, FotoweekDC International Awards, National Geographic - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, International Photographic Society, World Bank/IMF - Washington DC

  • Residency, Talo Creative Residency - Rovaniemi, Finland (Lapland)

  • Artist talk, Belarus: Isolation and Identity - National Press Club - Washington DC

  • Award, Teacher Award of Excellence, Columbia Scholastic Press Association

2012

  • Uncover/Discover exhibition, FotoweekDC - Washington DC

  • International Photobook Awards exhibition, Goethe Institute - Washington DC

  • Artist talk, The Waiting Room, Int'l Center for Journalists - Washington DC

  • Award, The Waiting Room, 2nd pl, FotoweekDC Int’l Photobook Awards

  • Portfolio Reviewer, Goethe Institute, FotoweekDC - Washington DC

  • Award, Teacher Award of Excellence, Columbia Scholastic Press Association

2011

  • Artist talk, The Waiting Room, FotoweekDC - Washington DC

  • Exhibition, Uncover/Discover - Arlington VA (selected by Philip Brookman, Senior Curator at Corcoran Gallery of Art)

2010

  • Exhibition, Px3 Aftermath - Paris, France

2009

  • Exhibition, Foto8 Summer Show - London, UK

  • Exhibition, The Power of Elections - Ronald Reagan Ctr, DC / Paley Ctr for Media, NYC (ICFJ)

  • Instructor, Summer Photopracticum documentary workshop - Minsk, Belarus

  • Grant, US Embassy lecture and photo presentation - Minsk, Belarus

2008

  • Residency, International Art Symposium - Dorobanti, Romania

  • Exhibition, International Art Symposium - Arad, Romania

  • Exhibition, East, ZOYA Galleria, Warsaw, Poland

2006

  • Curator, Chernobyl20 exhibition - Washington DC / United Nations NY

2005

  • Judge, CEC ArtsLink grant competition - Washington DC

  • Arabbers exhibition - Creative Alliance, Baltimore MD

  • Exhibition, Kosovo and Serbia, Transphotographiques Festival - Lille, France

  • Exhibition, Kosovo and Serbia, International Festival of Photography - Lodz, Poland

2004

  • Exhibition, Baltimore, International Festival of Photography - Lodz, Poland

2003

  • Grant, US Embassy for solo exhibition - Minsk, Belarus

  • Exhibition, Arabbers, Villa Julie Gallery - Baltimore MD

  • Exhibition, Seeing-Eye II (solo) - Nova Gallery of Visual Arts, Minsk, Belarus

  • Exhibition, Richest Man in Babylon, Govinda Gallery - Washington DC (curated by Thievery Corporation)

  • Father-son exhibition, Strathmore Hall - Bethesda, MD

2002

  • Exhibition (solo), Dom Omladine - Belgrade, Serbia

2001

  • Grant, CEC ArtsLink for Belarus collaboration

  • Exhibition/workshop, The Seeing-Eye (w/ Karel Cudlin), Nova Gallery of Visual Arts - Minsk, Belarus

1999

  • Award, 1st Place/Feature Story, Along the Line, National Press Photographers Association