TEACHING ARTISTS
DeAndre Mitchell is a Brooklyn born, New York City raised, editorial and fine art photographer, who tries to capture the essence of living in the most busy, money driven city in the world. As a biologist and photographer, the only thing that intertwines his two passions is this fascination with light. Growing up in New York also allowed him to develop a hyperactive approach to making photographs, as well as a fine tuned attention to detail. While embarking on his professional photography journey, DeAndre’s work started leaning towards an ambiguous/dreamy style. “Rather than just taking traditionally composed photos, I took pictures of regular, mundane things in a way that you wouldn’t normally see them — or maybe you would, but only for a split second, or maybe it played back in my head as a distorted memory or dream. Putting a different spin and context on the word “regular.” DeAndre tries to emphasize this in his work and even applies this mindset when shooting commercial and editorial. Different forms of printmaking have been a recent endeavor in his journey; Whether it be prints, books, collectible postcards, t-shirts, or collaborations printing on objects and furniture.
Bicho is a photographer born and based in Brooklyn, NY. He is an activist who organizes with the Puerto Rican community around the issue of independence and sovereignty for the archipelago. A photographer of 8 years, Bicho finds inspiration from the family photo albums handed down to him from his grandmother. He documents the Puerto Rican diasporic experience by highlighting the cultural expressions and political diversity of his people. As a photojournalist, he uses photography as a medium for getting to know the Puerto Rican community in order to learn from them and build the independence movement. He is also a high energy event photographer capturing parties, punk shows, perreos, DJ residencies, and weddings. He utilizes both analog and digital photography to capture his subjects. The major themes in his work are placemaking, identity, and resilience. Bicho is also an educator teaching photography to middle school students in collaboration with the International Center of Photography as well as the Josephine Herrick Project.
Kyle Lui is a Chinese-American photographer based in NYC. Kyle’s work focuses on the intimacies and sutures within families and communities, with an emphasis on immigrant families and male friendship. Kyle’s work explores how immigration and cultural differences and loss affects intergenerational relationships. Kyle’s work also explores masculinity and expansive ways for men to be intimate and in friendship with each other. Kyle received his bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Tufts University.
Kyle began his photography journey in 2018 when he was studying abroad for university in London. Kyle was inspired to start his own documentary photography practice when he discovered projects by photographers such as Taryn Simon and Dawoud Bey. In 2023, Kyle held his debut solo exhibition at Photoville for his project Sowing Rice with Salt. Kyle’s work has been featured on CNN Style and i-D Magazine. He has also exhibited in Soho Photo Gallery and Pearl River Gallery. Kyle is a 2023 alumni of Review Santa Fe and 2022 alumni of the ASMP Bridge mentorship program.
Maylyn ‘Zero’ Iglesias is a Nuyorican photographer, educator, archivist and curator born and raised on the Lower East Side. Her early sensibilities were formed in New York City by 1980’s graffiti, hip hop, punk and her mother’s Salsa and Supremes records.
She graduated from LaGuardia Community College with an Associates Degree in Commercial Photography. Iglesias' work is focused on her beloved Loisaida with the aim of documenting her neighborhood, while finding a way to stay connected to her roots and preserving remnants of the quickly disappearing Nuyorican culture that once thrived so boldly in her youth. Her personal project, “What’s It Mean to be Nuyorican” was added to the LaGuardia Wagner Archives in 2021. During that time she joined the Loisaida Center to head their newly-launched archive program, which was created to preserve the history of LES photographers, poets, musicians and neighborhood leaders and activists. Maylyn is new to the JHP team, but she has co-taught photography workshops and been a teaching and darkroom assistant at the Lower East Side Girls Club, the Dorill Initiative, the Free Film Project, and ICP.
Alberto Vasari is a Brooklyn based portrait and documentary photographer. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a veteran of The United States Marine Corps. He has been teaching with JHP for 4 years.
In his own words: “At the age of seventeen my thirst for adventure and a desire to give back to the country that offered my family hope motivated me to join the Marine Corps. It was there that I first began shooting photos with a friend's camera. I was moved by the power of photography to capture so much emotion in a fraction of a second. Studying photography and film at the University of Illinois in Chicago I quickly learned that I was better suited to shoot a camera than a rifle.
Heriberto Sanchez was born in Puebla, Mexico, and moved to The Bronx as a child with his family to seek better opportunities. Heriberto graduated from Bronx Community College and New York City College of Technology with a BA in Communication Design. As a photographer, I strongly believe in capturing and preserving unique stories through my lens. My goal is to document and cherish the stories of my beloved family, friends, and the Bronx community. Through photography, I aim to encapsulate the essence of these moments and create lasting memories that resonate with the richness of our shared experience.
Born in NYC and raised in Yonkers, NY, Brianna's passion for visual arts began when she was 17. She later went to Lehman College in the Bronx, NY to pursue a BA in Film & TV Studies. She served as Bronxnet's Intern & Studio Coordinator where she both recruited and trained high school and college students in all aspects of studio production.
From Bronxnet, Brianna has gone on to freelance for various networks including CNN’s Headline News, News 12 Westchester, BET and The Grio; institutions/organizations such as Mount Sinai Health System, Columbia University, Harvard University, the American Medical Association and has served as a production consultant and cinematographer for a variety of independent minority and WOC owned production companies.
Laila Annmarie Stevens (b. 2001) is a Black Queer Photographer and Visual Artist born and raised in South Jamaica Queens, NY based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA in Photography and Related Media at The Fashion Institute of Technology. Their work could be described as a raw and intimate perspective. Redefining traditional family structures through contemporary community kinship, particularly the sisterhood of marginalized women and girls. Through her early work in youth organizations, she’s incorporated image-making to envision a world of inclusion and power.
Matt Nianzhang Liu is an artist born and raised in Shenyang, China, and is currently based in New York City. Matt holds a Master’s degree from CUNY Brooklyn College and a Bachelor’s degree from the LuXun Academy of Fine Arts. Liu’s work is based on a practice of casual observance and sensitive composition, inspired by the different places he has lived in over the past several years. Much of his work addresses the suffering and loss brought on by the convergence of cultures through globalization and urbanization. Through capturing simple moments in time and space, he traces the cultural fusion and de-regionalization created by the movement of people across cities. He photographs and paints architecture, commercial spaces, people, man-made landscapes, and himself, in each case studying the formal characteristics that bridge specificity and familiarity in a person or place.
Lizie Ben Shmuel's portraits illuminate moments of quiet intimacy—capturing each subject and their essence in a way that feels both deeply personal and inviting. Rooted in the vibrancy of Miami, and now nestled in the heart of Brooklyn's Crown Heights, Lizie's work carries the warmth of her origins while embracing the eclectic charm of her current surroundings. Through her art, she brings you into a sweet moment where time stands still. You can feel her presence alive in the work, gently coaxing forth the genuine beauty that resides in every soul she portrays.
My name is Tiffany Galicia, I am a 24 year old, first generation Guatemalan-Latina born and raised in Queens, New York. I’m a surrealist/conceptualist photographer and multidisciplinary artist. Additionally, I’m a recent graduate of two degrees at QCC and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
As an artist, I have always been a storyteller with the talent of communicating the inner mind. Through many variations of visual art, I love to express the strength in being vulnerable and unmasking our humanly truths. Topics I focus on are empowering my Latinx community and representing our culture, women empowerment, healing traumas, dreams with nightmares, and embodying the definition of love. I have been shooting since I was 15 years old, and I can confidently say it's the biggest passion I hold in my heart.
Colombian photographer and videographer Isaac Carvajal, 25, was born in Bucaramanga. Isaac relocated to New York to join LaGuardia Community College's commercial photography program after developing an interest in photography throughout his high school years. Isaac studied studio, portrait, fashion, journalism, lifestyle, and live entertainment during his two years at LaGuardia.
He had the opportunity to photograph many famous artists, including Beyoncé, The Jonas Brothers, Coldplay, Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Janet Jackson, Adele, Backstreet Boys, Arcade Fire, Rosalia, Karol G, Camila Cabello, and many more. Isaac was awarded a scholarship by the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation in recognition of his commitment to photography.
My name is Rochelle Brock and I’m a photographer & Director from & based in Brooklyn, NY. I started doing photography because I realized that the communities I was a part of as a plus sized black woman were underrepresented in the fashion and art world. Over the years, my work has evolved in various directions in many different sectors of fashion, Beauty & lifestyle images. I pride myself on being able to work with and relate to the “non- traditional”.
Hi! I'm Sarai Garcia. I'm a Gen-Z Dominican-American photographer and set designer from Queens, NY. Through my lens, I aim to create moments that allow people to see themselves in a new light.
I believe that photoshoots should make people feel seen and celebrated. In a world that often pressures us to conform and be someone we’re not, I encourage people to take a deep breath, let their true selves shine.
Marion is a photographer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York.
They cut their teeth in the streets, documenting and organizing with the Filipino National Democratic movement and the W.O.W. Project, a women, queer, and trans-led community initiative that uses art and activism to protect NYC Chinatown’s culture. In 2017, they started a portrait project of queer Asian-Americans, which inevitably led them into the QTBIPOC nightlife and drag scenes in New York. Informed by their own experience as a trans person of color, Marion uses their camera to immortalize queer joy as a form of liberation.
Jealyn is a portrait photographer with a passion for community care and activism. Influenced by his community of drag, neurodivergent, sex working, disabled, kink, and trans folks in Brooklyn, Jealyn aims to create work of resilience and liberation through therapeutic art practices. In recent work, Jealyn is focusing on self identity and what telling their communities story might look like. Beyond being a photographer, Jealyn is producing a drag show for trans youth called Lil Park Drag Show, working on programs for up and coming photographers with Josephine Herrick Project, and is currently finishing a photography program with The Bridge NYC.
Jessica is a fine art photographer, capturing cinematic and urban landscapes, architecture, documentary and street photography. She worked as a designer, illustrator and documentary filmmaker before finding her joy and passion in photography.
After 15 years of taking photographs, in 2014, she began publishing her writing and photographic experiments. Her photographs have gone on to be exhibited across the country. Her work exhibited at the RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco, the Los Angeles Center for Photography, the Vermont Center for Photography, and the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont. Many of her photographs were selected for juried shows, including shows at the Sidney-Mishkin Gallery, the Trestle Gallery, and the Davis Orton Gallery in New York. Last year, her work made its international debut at the PH21 Gallery in Budapest, Hungary. She was awarded the 2017 Emerging Award by APA, American Photographic Artists, a national organization for photographers.
A graduate from the University of California at Davis with a B.A. in Studio Art and B.S. in Environmental Design and Visual Communication. In 2007, she received her M.F.A. in Documentary and Narrative film from Parsons at the New School. She resides in Brooklyn, NY.
As a photographer, photo editor and photo researcher Susan has made photography a major part of her life. She started her career as a documentary photographer, and uses this story telling style to capture the spontaneous and genuine moments of her time with you.
New York Magazine Weddings has listed her in their best photographer editorial section since 2003, saying she "tells a vibrant, moment-to-moment story while remaining unobtrusive"
Currently she specializes in small intimate events such as City Hall weddings, destination weddings, elopements, honeymoons, engagements, proposals and family reunions.
When not working in photography, she designs jewelry and working often with recycled metals and/or using the lost wax process. Some of this work can be found here and here.
Susan Falzone
Susan is a documentary and portrait photographer based in Connecticut. Her work focuses on contemporary social issues, with a special interest in healthcare-related stories. Her goal is to help communities in need and raise awareness through her work.
She has been exhibited in various group shows in New York City, as well as the International Pingyao Photo Festival in China. Her work has been featured online and in print, including NPR's 100 Words: The Picture Show; feature shoot, The Great All Embracing Beds Book, by FOAM Magazine; New York Photo Festival Blog; and FotoVisura Spotlight. Her accomplishments include First Place in the Older People In The Media Awards; an Honorable Mention for the Jacob Riis Award; Placed in the International Photography Awards in People (Family); and Honorable Mentions in Feature and Editorial stories.
Susan is a graduate of the International Center of Photography in NYC. Her guest lectures include Yale University, Sacred Heart University, Williston Northampton School and the Alzheimer’s CT Education Conference.
Sunny San Diego California native, Teanna "Tee" Woods Okojie, has created a special and unique way of integrating her love for children and families through photography, with a heart for social change and passion for ethical representation in documentary portraiture. Teanna's visual focus remains on the current social, economic, racial, and education injustices affecting our world.
She earned her Bachelor's degree in Still Professional Photography & Commercial Advertising from Brooks Institute, but began her early stages in photography as a sophomore in high school. Teanna was traditionally trained in film photography, darkroom printing and digital photography. She received early recognition for her work entering (and winning!) competitions at local state and county fairs.
After graduating Brooks Institute, Teanna pursed a career in editorial children's and teens fashion, which evolved into documentary portraiture focused on children and families. She also began teaching photography to children and adults in the United States and overseas early in her career. Her work has been exhibited throughout Los Angeles, Brooklyn, New York City, both South & West Africa. Her current project locations include extensive work throughout the continent of Africa, continued photographic series in Lagos, Nigeria.
Camille Tokerud is a texas born photographer specializes in Advertising photography shooting global lifestyle Campaigns as well as constantly collaborating with non profits.
She graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2004, with a BFA in Advertising Photography. After graduation, she knew he had to do one thing and that was to see if she could make it in New York City. Five years of assisting both photographers and Directors, she went out on her own, as a photographer! 20 + years later she still loves her job as well as NY. Her constant growth and curiosity in life has recently moved her into shooting and directing videos as well. For the last 6 years Camille has taught and collaborated with JHP Working with the underserved is a wonderful honor, giving them a voice through a lens is a deep priority.
Tom LeGoff is a freelance photographer and educator residing in New York City. He has built a commercial career shooting portraits, film stills, editorial and events. In 2003 he created the photography department at the School of Creative and Performing Arts (SOCAPA), where he works with young artists. In 2017, Tom completed his formal academic studies receiving his MFA from the University of Louisville. Currently Tom is working with the Josephine Herrick Project (JHP), being of service with New York Cares, experimenting with GIFs, and on warm days framing the world, on the street, with a camera. To contact or see more work: www.tomlegoff.com or follow on Instagram. Photo credit: Penumbra Foundation, 2018.
Born in Belgrade, Serbia, Svetlana received an MA in Psychology from the University of Belgrade. In 1999, she moved to The Hague, The Netherlands, where she worked with the United Nations. She has also studied at the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK) in The Hague, Nouva Accademia di Belle Arti NABA in Milan, and the International Center of Photography in New York City. In 2015, she moved to NYC, where she is currently living and working on personal and commercial art projects, and also as a Teaching Assistant at the International Center of Photography.
Riana is an educator, freelance artist and aspiring birth doula from Princeton, NJ. She has worked with students of all ages at various organizations and institutions, including the Lower Eastside Girls Club, NYU, the Bronx Documentary Center, the Whitney Museum and Wallkill Correctional Facility. In 2018, she graduated with a degree in Photography & Imaging from New York University. Riana is new to the JHP team.
Karen Ann Sullivan is a Westchester-based Teaching Artist and Photographer specializing in wildlife and other natural subjects. Through the experience of teaching adults and school-aged children, she has seen firsthand how much using images of the natural world helps students of all ages connect with photography. She has exhibited her work extensively, including in solo exhibits at several Audubon centers in Connecticut and Massachusetts, as well in a group exhibit at the New York Hall of Science Museum.
Additionally, Karen gives workshops in the areas of travel, nature, and bird photography. She leases her image artwork to business clients and has created a line of handmade, environmentally conscious photo note cards available in both retail stores and customized large orders for corporate clients.
Joana Toro Colombian is a self-taught photographer based in both New York City and Bogota, Colombia. Her work explores issues of immigration, human rights and identity and was featured on The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, World Press Photo Witness, Open Society Foundations, and Photoword China Magazine, amongst others. She worked as a staff photographer with the major magazines and newspapers in Colombia before she migrated to the United States in 2011 to further her career as a documentarian and artist.
Her work is included in various collections in Latin America Photography: ai-ap Latin American Photography and En Foco. It has been exhibited in international photo festivals all over the globe: Les Femmes s’exposent France 2019, Photoville New York, Guate Photo, Guatemala, Just another Festival India, International Photography festival Pingyao China, and more.
Born in Berkeley, California, Mary Teresa Giancoli is a Teaching Artist, Curator and Photo Researcher. She photographs the landscape and rituals across cultures. As an Artist in Residence with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, she created Cuetzalan, a portfolio on women weavers in in rural Mexico. Her work has been exhibited in group and solo shows across New York City, as well as The Mexican Fine Arts Museum in Chicago, the Alameda National Center for Arts and Culture in San Antonio, Texas, and the Mamá Art Gallery in San Francisco. Internationally, her work has been exhibited at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana and the Universidad Iberoamericana de Puebla, both in Mexico, and the Fabbrica Europa Festival, Florence, Italy.
Mary earned an M.F.A from Hunter College, CUNY and a B.A. from Wellesley College, MA. She lives in Queens, NY, and has been teaching photography with JHP since 2015.
Ariana Sarwari is an artist and educator from New York. She uses photography and video to explore silent, restrained spaces within the confines of a multi-generational home, most recently documenting the relationships and interactions that occur within her immigrant family, evaluating her place within traditional Afghan culture and the Western culture that she was raised in. In addition to her artistic practice, Sarwari co-runs the Spruce Art Residency in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and teaches photography for the International Center of Photography and the Josephine Herrick Project. She received her MFA from Parsons School of Design in 2018 and most recently exhibited at Gallery Petite in New York, at the Auckland Festival of Photography in New Zealand, and at the India Photo Festival in Hyderabad.
Isadora Frost grew up in Brazil, where, in 2009, she graduated from PUC Sao Paulo in Performance Art and Dance. In 2014, Frost completed a second degree in Fine Arts, at The San Francisco Art Institute, with a minor in Photography. In 2018 she acquired a Master’s Degree in Photography, at Parsons the New School of Design at the New School. Frost mixes all those media she learned, having a very complex multimedia practice. The relationship between the body and space is the main theme of Frost’s work; she explores multiple combinations of body and landscapes. In 2013 she participated in The Arctic Circle Residency. Since 2018 Frost has been internationally featured in Brazil, San Francisco, New Zealand, New York, Russia and China. In 2019 she received an Award as a Theme Winer at the Helsinki Photo Festival in Finland. In 2020 she was an artist in residence at Spruce Art Residency, where she is currently part of their Art Residency Winter Session, until may 2021. In addition to that Frost has been a Photography teacher for the last three years, starting as a TA at the New School and later becoming a lead photography teacher for K-12 mainly for Josephine Herrick Project in several schools throughout New York City.
Emet Sosna was born in San Francisco and attended the California College of Arts for a BFA and he received an MFA at Brooklyn College. Sosna has exhibited work in California, New York and Europe in galleries for over fifteen years. He has also completed numerous public art projects in schools and public spaces in New York. Emet Sosna has been teaching photography to high school and middle school students for the last 5 years. In addition, Sosna will work as an assistant teacher at the ICP in 2020.
Nicole Rosenthal is a native New Yorker. Her work has been shown in several group exhibitions in the US, Europe and Cuba and is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum Library and the SPBH Library. As a teenager in the late 1980’s, she was fascinated by material culture and how it played out on the streets of New York City. After earning a BA in Art and Semiotics from Brown University, Nicole photographed for the Associated Press and regularly contributed portraits and photo illustrations to national print magazines in the 1990s. Interested in learning more about narrative within photography, Nicole then earned an MFA from the University of Hartford’s photography program. Nicole is on the board of the 5 Corners Collective non-profit teaching collective. She currently teaches residents from the Queensbridge Houses in conjunction with the JHP, and she appreciates the perspective, energy and wisdom her students bring to the classroom.
Yael Ben-Zion is a New York-based visual artist and educator working primarily in photography. Her practice examines charged social and political issues from a personal perspective. She usually works on long-term lens-based projects that involve extensive research and continuing collaboration with her subjects, on or off camera. Yael’s work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe and Israel, and both her monographs, 5683 miles away (2010) and Intermarried (2014), were published by Kehrer to critical acclaim. She holds degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (LL.B/MBA), Yale Law School (LL.M; J.S.D) and the International Center of Photography (GS).
Jasmine Ebron
Jasmine is a graduate of Georgia State University, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Photography and a minor in Philosophy. She is currently pursuing an Masters in Art Therapy at New York University. Jasmine has experience working with those of diverse backgrounds and completed two AmeriCorps ArtistYear fellowships, a position through which she used art education and photography to support underserved students in local schools. Jasmine sees art as a significant vessel for social change and political awareness, making it a vital subject for young people to have access to in their education. Jasmine believes that her relationships with her family and friends are the driving force to her ambition and impact on the world around her.
Olivia Hunter is a visual artist who calls New York City home. She was born in Virginia and attended college at NYU Tisch School of the Arts where she received a BFA in Photography and Imaging. After graduation she worked for Human Rights Watch as a Photography and Publications Coordinator. In 2019, she graduated with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in Photography, Video, and Related Media. Her photographic work focuses on the stigmas surrounding mental health. She works to create conversations about mental illness by sharing her own personal experiences. Olivia has a passion for human rights work; specifically, using creativity to help others find their voice.
is a painter, photographer and educator who began her love of art at the age of 11. Her interest in painting and photography, often marrying the two mediums, is demonstrated in her recent project, “Subway Sleepers”. A study of subway riders in slumber on New York City subways was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and was exhibited in a solo show in New York City in June 2016. A graduate degree in mental health counseling from Northeastern University sparked her interest in psychology in her early years. This led to a position as supervisor of an art therapy program at a major hospital in NYC. As an educator she taught painting in Brazil and fine art and photography in middle/high school for the New York City Department of Education for fifteen years. Ms. Kessler currently volunteers her time and teaches photography to veterans, the brain-injured survivors community, and immigrant high school students. She currently lives and works in her hometown, Brooklyn Heights, New York.
Wendy Correa has a professional history as a photo producer, documentarian, and photo instructor in between. She works to inspire NYC youth to develop self-awareness and make a difference in their communities through. Wendy was raised in Queens, and has traveled extensively to document stories of protest, community and identity. Wendy has been teaching with JHP for 4 years.