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Eva Woolridge (she/her) is an award-winning Queer, Black & Chinese conceptual portrait photographer, public speaker, and social activist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her photo series explore the sexual, spiritual, and emotional nature of femininity. In her work she transcends surface-level labels of people of color by conveying strength, perseverance, vulnerability and vitality using strong lighting and composition.
In 2019 Woolridge became a recipient of The Leica Women in Foto Award for her series, “The Size of a Grapefruit,” a visual narrative based on Eva’s traumatic medical event which highlights the emotional stages from before, during and after her ovarian cyst surgery. Her objective is to address the accounts of her surgery, micro-aggressions and medical negligence Black women experience during medical emergencies, and the outdated information available in women’s reproductive health.
Woolridge continues to use visual narratives to convey a tone of a new, inclusive wave of feminine energy through her gaze as a queer, woman of color, while commenting on the social & cultural conditions of her communities.
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Jennifer McClure is a fine art photographer based in New York City. She uses the camera to ask and answer questions. Her work is about longing, solitude, and an ambivalent yearning for connection. She often uses herself and her experiences as subject matter to explore the creation of personal mythology and the agency of identity.
After an early start, Jennifer returned to photography in 2001, taking classes at the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography. In between, she acquired a B.A. in English Theory and Literature and began a long career in restaurants. Most of her projects today incorporate her love of literature; one series was inspired by a short story, another includes photos of transformative texts, still another draws titles from a long-form poem.
Jennifer was a 2019 and 2017 Critical Mass Top 50 finalist and twice received the Arthur Griffin Legacy Award from the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Juried Exhibitions. She was awarded CENTER’s Editor’s Choice by Susan White of Vanity Fair in 2013 and has been exhibited in numerous shows across the country. Her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, GUP, The New Republic, Lenscratch, Feature Shoot, L’Oeil de la Photographie, The Photo Review, Dwell, Adbusters, and PDN. Lectures include the School of Visual Arts i3: Images, Ideas, Inspiration series, Fotofusion, FIT, NY Photo Salon and Columbia Teacher’s College. She has taught workshops for Leica Akademie, PDN’s PhotoPlus Expo, the Maine Media Workshops, the Griffin Museum, and Fotofusion. She was a thesis reviewer and advisor for the Masters Programs at both the School of Visual Arts and New Hampshire Institute of Art. She founded the Women’s Photo Alliance in 2015.
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Haruka Sakaguchi is a Japanese documentary photographer based in Brooklyn. She was born in Osaka, Japan, and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was three months old.
Haruka’s documentary work focuses on cultural identity and sense of place, and has been published by The New York Times, National Geographic, TIME, The New Yorker, Newsweek, PDN, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and more. Her project 1945 was on display at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, from November 2017 through November 2018.
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Founder of Inclusion Strategies LLC, Leslie Fair has worked internationally for more than 25 years as a UN Senior Training Officer, Regional Stress Counsellor (both within the UN Department of Safety and Security), educational consultant, international School Psychologist, and Teacher—developing and delivering programs for personnel serving in 140 countries
UN ethical standards, core values (e.g., respect for diversity), and international normative human rights frameworks have guided Leslie in her work for more than two decades. In addition, her service within international settings has given her a unique perspective on talent development, diversity & inclusion, conflict resolution, and the nexus between individual behavior and organizational cultures. As a manager, psychologist, stress/resilience counsellor, training officer and educator, she has the highly specialized expertise required to facilitate sessions that truly promote belonging and well-being for all.
