Francisco Diaz
Though born in the U.S., Diaz's heritage is Cuban/Spanish. His predilection for artists like Goya, El Greco, and the still lifes of Juan Bautista de Espinosa may come from that background. Childhood years were spent in Brooklyn on Coney Island, but it wasn’t the luxurious turn-of-the-century playground that many see in old postcards. For him, it meant poverty and urban blight. Many of the old ripped posters and crumbling rides that surrounded his home had a big visual impact on him. Interestingly, one of the big impacts on his life was a cheap supermarket encyclopedia that introduced him to Leonardo da Vinci and the concept of the Renaissance Man.
A first prize winner at both the Texas Photographic Society International Photography Competition and the New York Center for Photographic Art’s “Rural Impressions” Exhibition, in NY, he was one of only 3 core American photographers invited to exhibit at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale in Australia. Recent exhibitions have included the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado and the Kolga Awards in Photography in Tbilisi, Georgia. Along with his collaborator Deb Young, he was named "International Photographer of the Year" at the 6th Edition Pollux Awards, the Fine Art and Documentary Photography Biennial held in Malaga, Spain. Diaz + Young recently won the 9th Julia Margaret Cameron Award at the 4th Biennial of Fine Art + Documentary Photography in Berlin, Germany.
Diaz + Young's International Collaboration Project "The Playground Series" was given a solo exhibition in 2015 at Soho Photo Gallery, NYC and will be exhibited in 2016 - 2017 at Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, Idaho.
Deb Young
When Young was a teenager, a photographer friend took snaps of her family. They were dressed in muslin and flares and the shots were taken outside in the back yard. Back-lit and black & white, she was mesmerized by the romantic, almost rock-star feel of those back yard, hippie shots. Her passion for photography came to life when she was given the opportunity to work behind the scenes on the publication of New Zealand Photography Magazine. She was involved in editing, shooting, image processing, judging the monthly-run competitions and interviewing professional photographers. That early connection prompted Young to pick up a camera again, years later after raising her family. With a fascination for documentary photography she began shooting the streets of Auckland using a variety of analogue cameras.
Young’s work has been featured in such prestigious online photography magazines as Lenscratch, Dodho, Visual Artbeat, PH Magazine and F-Stop. She recently had work exhibited at The Kolga Awards in Tbilisi, Georgia and the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado. Along with artist/photographer Francisco Diaz, she was named "International Photographer of the Year" at the 6th Edition Pollux Awards, the Fine Art and Documentary Photography Biennial held in Malaga, Spain. Young + Diaz recently won the 9th Julia Margaret Cameron Award at the 4th Biennial of Fine Art + Documentary Photography in Berlin, Germany.
Both Young + Diaz's International Collaboration Project "The Playground Series" was given a solo exhibition in 2015 at Soho Photo Gallery, NYC and will be exhibited in 2016 - 2017 at Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, Idaho..