Photography (Major)

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Photography (Major)
Faculty + Staff
Our faculty are leading artists and mentors. Get to know us.

MICA photography faculty bring diverse interests and creative focus to the classroom through a range of methodologies and backgrounds. Our faculty are working artists, exhibiting broadly and are the recipients of numerous prestigious grants and fellowships.  We value mentorship and build close relationships with our students. Please explore below to learn more. 

Full-Time Faculty

Full-time faculty in Photography.

Nate Larson

Nate Larson (he/him) is the Photography Area Head and a contemporary artist and documentarian working with photographic media, artist books and time-based media. His projects have been widely exhibited across the US and internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Halsey ICA (2021), Tephra ICA (2019), George Eastman Museum (2019), Filter Space Chicago (2016), Orlando Museum of Art (2013), Blue Sky Center for Photographic Arts (2012), and the Contemporary Arts Center Las Vegas (2011). His artwork is included in the collections of the High Museum Atlanta, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Portland Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago. His collaborative monograph "Geolocation" was published by Flash Powder Projects in 2016. He has served as a Rubys Artist Fellow with the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, the McCullough Research Fellow at Marietta College, the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Artist Fellow at Duke University, and an artist-in-residence with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, among other honors.

natelarson.com

 

Affiliate Faculty

Affiliate Faculty are full-time MICA faculty who teach courses in Photography as well as other programs and departments.

Kelli Williams

Kelli Williams (she/her) is an animator and visual artist. In her personal work, she uses stop-motion animation, photography, augmented reality, installation, and humor to create work that comments on society through the lens of social media and technology. She is an alumna of Morgan State University where she majored in Fine Art, with a concentration in photography. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from Columbus College of Art in Design. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and has been featured in the Huffington Post, Columbus Live, Hyperallergic, Artnet, Baltimore magazine, and Netflix’s Cops and Robbers.

kelliswilliams.com

Maia Chao

Maia Chao (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist who works collaboratively in social practice, film, and performance. She is co-creator of the social practice project, Look at Art. Get Paid. Chao has received commissions from The Shed, MoMA Education, Mural Arts, Tufts University Galleries, and Kellen Gallery at Parsons School of Design and exhibited at Bronx Museum, RISD Museum, and Cuchifritos Gallery. She has completed fellowships and residencies from the Fine Arts Work Center, Pioneer Works, Triple Canopy, and Queer|Art. In 2022, she was named a Pew Fellow and in 2023, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Currently, Chao is the Public Artist in Residence at the Times Square Alliance and is developing a performance commission for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in DC. She has upcoming exhibitions at Boston Center for the Arts and Oregon Contemporary.

maiachao.com

Part-Time Faculty

Chan Chao

Chan Chao (he/him) was born in Kalemyo, Burma. He has published three photography books, “Burma: Something Went Wrong,” “Letter form PLF” and “Echo.” Chao’s Burma portraits were featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial (New York, New York). His photographs has been exhibited at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, New York, G Fine Art in Washington, DC and Mark Moore Gallery in Santa Monica, California. Chao’s photographs are in the permanent collection of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The National Gallery of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Huston Museum of Fine Art, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Denver Art Museum, Museum of Photographic Art, Asian Society Museum and LaSalle Bank Photography Collection.

chantchao.com

Lisa Elmaleh

Lisa Elmaleh (she/her) is an analog photographer, artist, and humanitarian. Elmaleh resides in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in a primitive cabin. Her most recent body of work, Promised Land/Tierra Prometida, focuses on the crisis at the border of the United States and Mexico, and since 2020, she has been immersed in the migrant justice community there. Elmaleh’s images have been exhibited nationally and recognized by the Creator Labs Photo Fund (2023), the Arnold Newman Prize (2022), the Puffin Foundation (2022), the Aaron Siskind Foundation (2011), and the Tierney Foundation (2007), among others. She is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow.

lisaelmaleh.com

Saskia Kahn

Saskia Kahn (she/her) is a multidisciplinary visual artist from the Manhattan Beach section of Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Huffington Post, among others. Her clients include New York University, Yale School of Management, Pratt Institute, Fountain House, and Teach for America.

saskiakahn.com

Adriana Monsalve

Adriana Monsalve (she/they) is an artist, educator, cultural worker and collaborative publisher working (mostly) in the photobook medium. Along with Caterina Ragg, Monsalve is co-founder of Homie House Press, a radical cooperative platform that challenges the ever-changing forms of storytelling with image and text. Within her solo photographic practice, Monsalve is an archivist and visual communicator who produces in-depth stories on identity through the nuances in between race, gender, and immigrant adjacent experiences.

adrianastories.com

B. Proud

B. Proud. It's not a slogan. It's the name that's on her birth certificate, and Barbara Proud (she/her) says that it's a name she has to live up to. As both a distinguished commercial and fine art photographer, B. Proud has showcased her work in solo and group shows around the globe. With a robust academic background, she served as an Adjunct Professor of Photography at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, for 25 years, as faculty at the International Center of Photography (ICP), New York, and is currently teaching at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). B. Proud’s current work centers on socially conscious documentary projects highlighting the myriad injustices faced by the LGBTQ+, with a current focus on the transgender experience. Among these, "First Comes Love" is a traveling exhibition featuring photographs, stories, and videos of couples in long-term relationships, accompanied by a hardbound book that has earned two gold medals. Her short film, “A Circle of Diamonds,” which explores the significance of a diamond engagement pin worn by LGBTQ+ icon, Edie Windsor, has been included in over 20 film festivals worldwide. Proud’s work has garnered support through grants from the B.W. Bastian Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, The University of the Arts, and the Delaware State Arts Council. Her work is represented in notable collections, including the Weeks Gallery, Jamestown, NY, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Delaware Art Museum, Eastman Kodak, Haverford College, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Biggs Museum of American Art, The University of the Arts, and private collections.

bproudphoto.com

Nat Raum '18

Nat Raum (they/them) is a queer disabled artist and writer based on unceded Piscataway Conoy and Susquehannock land in Baltimore. They hold a BFA in Photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. Nat is the editor-in-chief of fifth wheel press and the author of random access memory, pool paintings, waver / quiver, and others. Their work has been exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography, ICA Baltimore, and BlackRock Center for the Arts, as well as published by Soft Lightning Studio, Another Chicago Magazine, and others.

natraum.com

Micah E. Wood '13

Micah E. Wood (he/him) is a Photographer & Musician based out of Baltimore, MD. His portrait photography flows with the vibrancy of the Baltimore music scene. Exploding with color, the work builds a sense of belonging and intimacy to the subject that can only be achieved by a thorough understanding of the specialness and sense of place in Baltimore.

micahewood.com

 

Department Staff

Jefferson Jackson Steele '92

Jefferson Steele (he/him) is the Photography Lab Manager, responsible for the facilities and equipment. Before rejoining MICA, he worked as a freelance photographer in Baltimore for many years, with clients like City Paper, Baltimore Business Journal, Metro Times Detroit, Philadelphia Weekly, and many others.

Ashley Reinhardt

Ashley Reinhardt (she/her) is the Photography Assistant Manger, responsible for day to day operations of the facilities. She holds an AFA in Photography from the Community College of Baltimore County where she also worked as Assistant Curator. Ashley has also found success in commercial photography working as a second shooter for Mike Oswald.

ashley-paige.weebly.com

Kris Lee

Kris Lee (she/her) is a part-time Photography Lab Assistant, responsible for the department facilities and equipment. She attended the Community College of Baltimore County and completed her degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

kayellephotography.com

Logan Schoeberlein '18

Logan W.Schoeberlein (he/him) is a part-time Photography Lab Assistant, responsible for day to day operations of the facilities. He holds a BFA in Photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has worked as a commercial photographer’s assistant, a custom art framer, and a darkroom manager and instructor for UMBC College Park Art and Learning Resource Center.

cargocollective.com/LoganSchoeberlein

 

Emeritus Faculty

Emeritus Faculty are beloved colleagues no longer actively teaching who continue to be involved in and resources for our community.

Regina DeLuise

Regina DeLuise (she/her) is a Guggenheim Fellow and has spent the major part of her career represented by Bonni Benrubi Gallery in NYC. Regina has received Fellowships at the Bogliasco Foundation in Bogliasco, Italy, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, and is the recipient of the 2019 Meredith Moody Residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY. Regina retired in 2023.

reginadeluise.com

Alexander Heilner

Alexander Heilner (he/him) is a multi-disciplinary artist and photographer whose work inhabits both fine art and documentary initiatives as he investigates the relationship between artificial and natural elements within the environment, and within our culture. A winner of the prestigious Baker Artist Prize, Alex has exhibited, screened, and performed his work nationally and internationally, from the walls of MoMA to the catacombs of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. International photography festivals including Pingyao, Sienna, and Daegu have featured his aerial photography and he has been awarded numerous grants and commissions in support of his ongoing environmental projects.

heilner.net

Lynn Silverman

Lynn Silverman (she/her) started teaching at MICA in 1999 and retired in 2020. Having lived and taught photography in three different countries, in 2010, Lynn received a Fulbright Fellowship to the Czech Republic. She currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland and serves on the board of Full Bleed, MICA's annual print and online journal.

lynnsilverman.com

Laurie S. Snyder

Laurie Snyder (she/her) started teaching at MICA in 1993 and served as Department Chairperson from 2008 until she retired in 2012. She currently lives in Ithaca, New York.

lauriessnyder.com

Jack Wilgus

Jack Wilgus (he/him) started teaching at MICA in 1968 and served as Department Chairperson for many years until he retired in 2008. He currently lives in Dallas, Texas.

brightbytes.com

In Memoriam

H. Thomas Baird

Tom Baird (he/him) started teaching at MICA in 1974 and served as faculty in the Photography Department until he retired in 2017. He earned a MICA Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Teaching. Tom passed away in 2021.

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