Artist Statement
I began working in the field of photography under the tutelage of esteemed photo dealer Joe Folberg at Vision Gallery in San Francisco, a “mini-mecca” for photographers. When the chance came for me to briefly manage the gallery at The Maine Photographic Workshops, I was rewarded with the opportunity to learn through the company of some of photography’s greatest image makers.
In addition to photographing for editorial assignments, my focus is on personal projects; currently I am shooting 'The Laundry Sherpas of Brooklyn' - a conceptual narrative that resides at the intersection of fact and fiction, created in collaboration with the denizens of the borough on their way to do their washing. My previous work 'the dark light of this nothing' is a multiplatform project of portraits, interviews and documentary street photography on the remaining working class in a changing Brooklyn neighborhood. Continually inspired by a long line of creatives as well as by the subject and circumstance before me, I believe in the importance of lineage and the narrative in photography. My photography has been exhibited and commissioned worldwide.
Process Statement
Erica McDonald is a photographer, educator and curator who lives in New York City. Her photography is regularly commissioned for magazines nationally and internationally and has been exhibited worldwide. She founded DEVELOP Photo to provide resources for the enrichment of the photojournalism, fine art and documentary photography community.
DEVELOP collaborates with photographers and organizations to showcase photography across innovative distribution platforms. Fostering the art and business of photography from an educational perspective, DEVELOP creates connections within our field.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Erica McDonald is a photographer, educator and curator who lives in New York City. She founded DEVELOP Photo to provide resources for the enrichment of the photojournalism, fine art and documentary photography community. Her photography is regularly commissioned for magazines nationally and internationally and has been exhibited worldwide.
Erica began working in the field of photography under the tutelage of esteemed photo dealer Joe Folberg at Vision Gallery in San Francisco, a “mini-mecca” for photographers. When the chance came for her to manage the gallery at The Maine Photographic Workshops, she was rewarded with the opportunity to learn through the company of some of photography’s greatest image makers.
Erica holds a BA in Linguistics from New York University with studies in Anthropology and Art History. After studying printmaking at the Massachusetts College of Art and working in graphic design, she returned to New York City to pursue her own photographic work. Since 2010, she has taught an annual intensive documentary photography workshop through Spazio Labo' Center of Photography. In 2011, she became an Adjunct Lecturer in Photojournalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and joined the Advisory Committee for Rehabilitation Through Photography and the Editorial Committee at Photojournale. In 2012, McDonald co-curated the exhibit Uncommon Intimacy: Quattro fotografe e la scuola newyorchese in Bologna, Italy featuring the work of Amy Stein, Juliana Beasley, Amy Touchette and Erica McDonald, and Multimedia Night: Women in Multimedia for Arte Fiera. Erica has served as a contributing editor to the book 'Connections Across A Human Planet', a collection of photo documentary stories from around the world and has reviewed portfolios for PDN PhotoExpo / Palm Springs Photo Festival.
Continually inspired by a long line of creatives as well as by the subject and circumstance before her, McDonald believes in the importance of lineage and the narrative in photography.
Commissions and publications include: Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Financial Times Weekend Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Photography, Bloomberg Businessweek, Boston Magazine, Courrier International Magazine, YES! Magazine, BE Magazine, El Mundo, Gioia Magazine, The Epoch Times, The Week, Runner's World Magazine, burn magazine and its printed collector's edition burn.01, The British Journal of Photography, The Collector’s Guide to New Art, Nonesuch Records and Rhino Records.
McDonald's photographs have been exhibited in Australia, Romania, Italy, and France, and in New York by PowerHouse, the Museum of the City of New York & South Street Seaport Museum, the Camera Club of New York, at Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey's burn gallery, at FotoWeek DC and at Gallery Carte Blanche in San Francisco, California. Her work has been included in projections and exhibits at the Athens Photo Festival, the Head On Photo Festival, Fovea, LOOK3, the Angkor Photo Festival, Bursa Photofest, Palm Springs Photo Festival, the FotoGrafia Festival in Rome and the Slideluck Potshow. Awards and nominations include IPA/Lucies, PX3, The NY Photo Awards and the Magnum Cultural Foundation EPF, and a Lower East Side Printshop Residency.
She loves dogs, small and large alike.
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