Mark Abramson (b. 1988) is a Russian-American freelance photographer and cinematographer based in New York City. He is drawn to telling stories that allow him to cross over into his subjects’ lives, and he sees photography as a gateway into the process of producing visual documentation in an intimate fashion. Much of the pull towards covering issues concerning immigration, undocumented populations, and other social issues, stems from the fabric of his own family history and the migration from the former Soviet Union, which has catalyzed his desire to produce journalistic and documentary content with a camera.
He graduated with a degree in journalism and mass communications from the George Washington University in 2010, and has has been producing visual content since 2009, during which time he started his journey into photojournalism; subsequently working as a multimedia intern for the Washington Post, later as a photographer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and eventually basing himself in New York City as full time freelancer.
He has been a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal since 2011 and has published work with clients such as: The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Education Week , Getty Images, GOOD Magazine, Newsweek, TIME, Arena Magazine, National Geographic (Food), El Nuevo Día, and others.
Scott Brauer is a freelance photographer based in Boston, Massachusetts. His work has been published by Time, Esquire, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Globe and Mail, Le Monde, MIT Technology Review, New Scientist, Wired, NPR, and others. His work has also been awarded by American Photography, the Magenta Foundation, the Boston Press Photographers Association, Feztiv Art, and the Visual Culture Awards, and exhibited at the LUMIX Festival, Kaunas Photo Festival, Organ Vida Festival, Eastreet3, the Flash Forward Festival, Southampton Arts Center (curated by the International Center for Photography), FotoAplauso, the Ballarat International Foto Bienalle, the Format International Photo Festival, and others. Brauer is also the co-founder and editor of dvafoto.com, a long-running blog about photojournalism, the world of photography, and ethics. In 2015, Brauer began writing a column on photographers’ sketchbooks for the photography magazine Raw View.
Looking for the eternal in the ephemeral, Landon photographs fine art projects and works for commercial and editorial clients around the world. His first monograph, Out of Fashion, will be published by Damiani this fall (2016). American Photography, Communication Arts, Pictures of the Year International, The PDN Photo Annual, The Center for Documentary Studies, PDN’s 30, and The Society for Publication Design have all commended his work. Landon’s photographs have been exhibited at The Howard Greenberg Gallery and The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing among other venues, and are in the collections of The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and The Columbus Museum of Art.
Lorie Novak is an artist and Professor of Photography & Imaging at NYU Tisch School of Arts. She is the co-curator with Deborah Willis of the exhibition cit.i.zen.ship: reflections on rights,part of the For Freedoms 50 state initiative, on view at Photoville and Tisch School of the Arts. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally, and she is a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in Photography. She is also Director and Founder of Future Imagemakers, a social practice project at NYU Photography & Imaging, offering free digital photography classes to NYC area high school students. Novak’s installation Random Interference was exhibited at the first Photoville in 2012.
Hilary Swift is a freelance photojournalist based out of New York City interested in documenting politics, social issues and breaking news. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Times national, political and metro desks. A Vermont native, Swift attended Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa studying environmental science before obtaining her bachelor’s degree in Visual Journalism from Brooks Institute in Ventura, California. Prior to her relocation to New York, Swift interned at The New York Times, The Free-Lance Star and The Reno Gazette Journal.
Michael Shaw is a clinical psychologist and publisher of Reading the Pictures, the visual and media literacy nonprofit dedicated to the daily analysis of news images. He also writes and lectures on visual politics and photojournalism. He is a regular contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review, and his work has been featured in publications such as TheNew York Times Magazine, TheNew Republic, Salon, Quartz, and American Photo.
The nonprofit media and visual literacy site, Reading the Pictures, is the only organization dedicated to the daily analysis of news photos and cultural images. Launched in 2004, Reading the Pictures is closely followed by the news and photo media, the photojournalism community, university journalism, photojournalism, visual studies/communication programs, and visually concerned citizens.
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