“These photographs are part documentation and part interpretation of a collaborative, after-school arts curriculum based on self-portraiture. I co-wrote and taught the curriculum with my teaching partner, Meda Rago. The basic idea was built around a photographic portrait I would take of our students, print the images and then Meda and I would teach them to make drawings and collages of themselves from the photographs. Documenting while teaching, I would then travel to various photo reviews to show the work and get feedback. I would also exhibit the images in galleries and festivals while adjusting the process back and forth as I engaged with the students and the photo community. The project took place in Manchester, Pittsburgh, PA., and revolved around young students from the local public and charter school in the neighborhood.
The complete body of work incorporates drawings, recycled photographs, sound, print media and body gesture while exploring dimensions of self and “other” including race, class and gender. The curriculum and documentation took place over a thirteen year period. Currently I continue to edit, print and exhibit the archive while working on a book of the project.
The project was funded by the Manchester Citizens Corporation, the State of Pennsylvania, Dollar Bank of Pittsburgh and the Society of St. Vincent DePaul. A special thank you goes out to all of the students who participated and my teaching partner, Meda.”
Francis Crisafio 2024
Bio:
Francis Crisafio was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. and studied painting and printmaking at Carnegie Mellon University. A self-taught photographer, Mr. Crisafio tends to work on long-term, narrative projects focusing on portraiture and identity.
He has been included in group exhibitions at Photographic Resource Center, Boston; “The Fence,” Brooklyn and Boston; Filter Festival/Space, Chicago; Center for Photography, Greenville, SC; Los Angeles Center for Photography; PhotoNOLA, New Orleans; Aperture Foundation Gallery and Soho Photo Gallery, both New York; Philadelphia Photo Arts Center; The Print Center, Philadelphia; Silvereye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh; and Providence Center for Photographic Arts, amongst others.
His work has been curated/juried by Elizabeth Avedon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Aline Smithson, Christopher Rauschenberg/Bluesky Gallery; Reto Thuring, Curator of Contemporary Art, Cleveland Museum of Art; Jose Diaz, Curator, The Andy Warhol Museum; Lisa Sutcliffe, Curator of Photography, Milwaukee Art Museum; Malcolm
Daniel, Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Rebecca Senf, Chief Curator, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ; Kathy Ryan, New York Times Magazine; Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Marilyn Kushner, Department of Prints and Drawings, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Louise Fedotov – Clements, Artistic Director of QUAD & FORMAT International Photography Festival; Lesley Martin, Aperture Book Publishing; Frank H. Goodyear III, Associate Curator of Photography, The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; Linda Benedict-Jones, Curator of Photography, Carnegie Museum of Art and others.
Crisafio was a LensCulture Exposure Awards Finalist, 2015; a Semifinalist in The Print Center’s 87th, 90th and 93rd ANNUAL International Competition, 2013, 2015 and 2018; a Fellow at the Silver Eye Center of Photography, Pittsburgh, 2017; and a Finalist for Exposure at Photographic Resource Center, Boston, 2018. He has been reviewed in Artscope Magazine, The Boston Globe, Feature Shoot, Hyperallergic, Lenscratch, A Photo Editor, Pittsburgh City Paper and Slate Magazine.
His work is included in the permanent collection of Carnegie Mellon University, The Center for Creative Photography in Tucson and in private collections across the United States.
He resides and works in Pittsburgh, PA.
All images ©2008-2024 Francis Crisafio
