Tema Stauffer

Tennessee

b. 1976

Tema Stauffer is a photographer whose work examines the social, economic, and cultural landscape of American spaces. Her work has been exhibited at Sasha Wolf Gallery, Daniel Cooney Fine Art Gallery, and Jen Bekman Gallery in New York, as well as galleries and institutions nationally and internationally including a survey of Contemporary U.S. Photography at the Houston Fotofest 2010 Biennial. She is an Assistant Professor of Photography at East Tennessee State University and has previously taught at Concordia University in Montreal, Ramapo College of New Jersey, College of Staten Island, School at ICP, William Paterson University, and Toxico Cultura in Mexico City. She was awarded an AOL 25 for 25 Grant for innovation in the arts in 2010 for her combined work as an artist, curator, and writer. She has contributed articles to PDNedu, American Photo Magazine, Ciel variable, Culturehall, and other publications.

She is the recipient of the 2012 Women in Photography – LTI/Lightside Individual Project Grant and a 2014 CCNY Darkroom Residency for her documentary portrait series, Paterson, depicting residents of Paterson, New Jersey during the years following the economic crisis of 2008. One of these portraits was a finalist for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 and was included in the competition exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery from 2013-14. The same portrait received third prize in The Photo Review Competition 2012. Paterson was presented in solo exhibitions at Baxter Street CCNY Gallery and Sasha Wolf Gallery in 2015. Her most recent series, Upstate, was published in a monograph by Daylight Books in fall 2018 and exhibited at ETSU’s Reece Museum, Tracey Morgan Gallery, ilon Art Gallery, and Hudson Hall at the historic Hudson Opera House. The book was nominated for the Unviel’d Photobook Award 2018.