Zoe Strauss

Zoe Strauss (born 1970) is an American photographer and a nominee member of Magnum Photos. She uses Philadelphia as a primary setting and subject for her work. In 2012 a mid-career retrospective, Zoe Strauss: 10 Years, was shown at Philadelphia Museum of Art, accompanied in Philadelphia by a display of 54 billboards showing her photographs, and at the International Center of Photography in New York City.

Strauss received a Seedling Award from the Leeway Foundation in 2002, a Pew Fellowship in 2005, a USA Gund Fellowship and a grant of $50,000 by United States Artists in 2007, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. Her father died when she was 5. She was the first member of her immediate family to graduate from high school. For her 30th birthday she was given a camera and started photographing in the city's marginal neighborhoods. She is a photo-based installation artist who uses Philadelphia as a primary setting and subject for her work. Strauss typically photographs overlooked (or purposefully avoided) details with a humanist perspective and eye for composure.

In 1995, Strauss started the Philadelphia Public Art Project, a one-woman organization whose mission is to give the citizens of Philadelphia access to art in their everyday lives. Strauss calls the Project an "epic narrative" of her own neighborhood. The show was a mid-career retrospective, building upon Strauss' ten years of photographic works, shown yearly from 2001 up to 2010. The 2012 exhibition was the first critical assessment of Strauss' ten-year project, and was accompanied by a 250-illustration catalogue, Zoe Strauss: 10 Years.

The 2012 Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition included the installation throughout Philadelphia of 54 billboards featuring Strauss' photographs. Although they could be viewed individually, the images were loosely structured around the themes of the Odyssey, journey and homecoming.

She frequently photographs near her grandparents' former home at 16th and Susquehanna. Her photographs include shuttered buildings, empty parking lots and vacant meeting halls in South Philadelphia. Strauss says her work is "a narrative about the beauty and difficulty of everyday life."

In July 2012 Strauss was elected into the Magnum Photos agency as a nominee.

Publications America. AMMO, 2008. . Zoe Strauss: 10 Years. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University, 2012. . Exhibition catalogue.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 2002–2009: Works-in-Progress, Southwark Community Center, Southwark, Philadelphia, last week of October annually 2001–2010: Under I-95 exhibit, under Interstate 95, Front St. and Mifflin St., Philadelphia, the first weekend of May annually 2006: Projected and Selected Images, Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2006: Ramp Project, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia 2008: Zoe Strauss: Works in Progress, Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana 2009: America: We Love Having You Here, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York City 2010: Zoe Strauss: Works for Columbus, OH, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio 2012: Zoe Strauss: 10 Years, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, January 2012 – April 2012; Zoe Strauss: 10 Years: A Slideshow, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York City, 2012; International Center of Photography, New York City, October 2013 – January 2014. 2006: Whitney Biennial: Day for Night, 73rd Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City 2006: Summer Vacation: Photographs from the Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia 2006: This Is America, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands 2008: History Keeps Me Awake at Night: A Genealogy of Wojnarowicz, PPOW Gallery, New York City 2008: L’Été photographique de Lectoure, Lectoure, France. 2008: Who's Afraid of America?, Wonderland Art Space, Copenhagen 2009: On the Scene: Jason Lazarus, Wolfgang Plöger, Zoe Strauss, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL 2010: Queer Brighton: Molly Landreth & Zoe Strauss, Lighthouse, Brighton, UK. Part of Brighton Photo Biennial. 2013: Homesteading was part of the 2013 Carnegie International, Pittsburgh

Commissions 2007 Philadelphia Eagles/Lincoln Financial Field, vinyl print of Mattress Flip 2008 World Class Boxing, Art Miami

Collections Strauss' work is held in the following permanent public collection: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania International Center of Photography, New York Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida 2017: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation