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“Using a temporary darkroom, multiple projections, large format cameras, and re-photography I imaginatively “return” my body to Lima, Peru in 1979, the year I was adopted from an orphanage there. The resulting series of self-portraits emerge from intersections between the city’s fraught history and my own, making visible the ways that violent or traumatic histories can be held in bodies and excluded from archives. I am interested in the multi-temporality of the photographic medium, and the potential of the darkroom itself as a site of performance or spectro-poetics– a way of conjuring the ghosts that haunt a life.“ (Tarrah Krajnak, 2022)
Tarrah Krajnak (b. Lima, Peru 1979) is an artist working across photography, performance, and poetry. Krajnak recently joined the UCLA Department of Art faculty, and is now based in Los Angeles. She is represented by Zander Galerie, Cologne/Paris. Krajnak is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, and was recently awarded the Jury Prize of the Louis Roederer Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles, a Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies,and the Hariban Grand Prize, from Benrido, Kyoto, Japan. Krajnak has published three books including El Jardín De Senderos Que Se Bifurcan (DAIS 2021), Master Rituals II: Weston’s Nudes (TBW 2022) and RePose (FW Books 2023). Her work was featured in recent issues of Aperture, British Journal of Photography, The Eyes Journal, and European Photography. This past year Krajnak’s work was exhibited in Corps á Corps at Centre Pompidou, Paris, Photography Now at Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Aperture’s traveling exhibition You Belong Here: People, Place, & Purpose in Latinx Photography, and in the solo exhibition Shadowings at the Huis Marseille Museum of Photography, Amsterdam. Krajnak’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate Modern, London, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Centre Pompidou, Paris, The Pinault Collection, Paris, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, and The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC among others.
Born 1979 in Lima, Peru
Lives and works in Los Angeles, USA
MFA, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
BFA, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH, USA
2024 – Present
Associate Professor of Art at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Assistant Professor of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
Director, Munroe Center for Social Inquiry: Photography & Racial Justice. Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, USA
Assistant Professor of Art, Art Field Group, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, USA
Director, Mellon Art + Environment Grant. Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, USA
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art. Art Department, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art. Art Department, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
Lecturer. Art Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025
Guggenheim Fellowship, Photography
George and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
Lewis Baltz Research Fund Award #5, Paris, France
Shortlisted for the Paris Photo–APERTURE Foundation PhotoBook Award (with the book “El Jardín de Senderos Que Se Bifurcan”)
Hariban Award Grand Prize, Kyoto, Japan
Named one of MoMA’s Favorite Photobooks of 2021 (selected by Clément Cheroux)
Louis Roederer Arles Discovery Award Jury Prize, Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France
Madame Figaro Women in Photography Award (Nominated/Shortlisted), Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France
Silver List, Silvereye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Emerging Artist Grant, Harpo Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Unseen Dummy Award (Second Place), Amsterdam, Netherlands
Photo London, La Fabrica Book Dummy Award Shortlist, Madrid, Spain
National Photography Award, Texas Photographic Society, Houston, TX, USA
Artist Grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Artist Grant, Vermont Council for the Arts, Burlington, VT, USA
Artist Grant, Vermont Community Foundation, Burlington, VT, USA
Women in the Arts Grant, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, USA
Artist in Residence, Benrido with Master collotype printer Yamamoto-San, Kyoto, Japan (as Hariban Award Recipient)
Unseen California. Artist Residency Cohort: Mercedes Dorame, Tarrah Krajnak, Dione Lee, Aspen Mays. Curated by Karolina Karlic, UCSC Natural Reserves Research Lab, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Light Work A-I-R, Light Work, Syracuse, NY, USA
Darkroom Artist in Residence, Aurora Photo Center, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Artist in Residence, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE, USA
Artist in Residence, Ohio Arts Council Exchange, Dresden, Germany
Woodstock A-I-R, Center for Photography Woodstock, Woodstock, NY, USA
Tarrah Krajnak SAINT LAURENT Rive Droite store, Paris, France
Mask & Mirrors, Zander Galerie Paris, Paris, Frane
Tarrah Krajnak. Shadowings, a Catalogue of Attitudes for Estranged Daughters, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tarrah Krajnak. Rock, Paper, Sun, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Tarrah Krajnak. RePose / REDCAT: Studio 2022 / 631 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. El Jardín de Senderos Que Se Bifurcan, Filter Photo, Chicago, IL, USA
1979 Contact Negatives, Lux Art Institute, San Diego, CA, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. 1979 Contact Negatives, as-is gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. Origin Stories, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. Sismos79, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lubbock, TX, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. Sismos79, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. Kloes, Mowry Center Gallery, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. 1979, Ampersand Gallery & Fine Books, Portland, OR, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. Sismos79, Riley Photography Gallery, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. South Sound, Ampersand Gallery & Fine Books, Portland, OR, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. The Stairs That Do Not Care, Gehe8, Dresden, Germany
Tarrah Krajnak. After Chambi, Firehouse Center, Burlington, VT, USA
Tarrah & Wilka Collaborative Works, Depauw University, Greencastle, IN, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. Submission, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. Anthology of Trends, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. (untitled #), Elmira College, Elmira, NY, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. (untitled #), Julian Scott Gallery, Johnson State College, Johnson, VT, USA
Recent Photographs by Tarrah Krajnak, SEABA Gallery, Burlington, VT, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. Spitting Image, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. (untitled #), Hartell Gallery, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. The Invisible Face, Colburn Gallery, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
OFFSCREEN (Installations, Still and Moving images), Paris, FR
Performing Histories / Histories Re-Imagined, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK
Captured Earth, MoCP, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, USA
When Images Learned to Speak: Conceptualized Documentary Photography from Astrid Ullens, De Schooten Whettnall’s Collection, Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France
PACING: Photographs by Dru Donovan, Melanie Flood, and Tarrah Krajnak, Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR, USA
Artists, Constellations, and Connections: Feminist Futures, Jordan Schnitzler Museum of Art, Eugene, OR, USA
Messengers: Leslie Hewitt, Tarrah Krajnak, Rodrigo Valenzuela, Moss Arts Center, Blacksburg, VA, USA
It Moves Forward, Always, Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, Long Beach, CA, USA
You Belong Here: Place, People, and Purpose in Latinx Photography, Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA
Body to Body: Photographic Stories, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Opening Exhibition of the Centre of Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
CHRONORAMA. Photographiques Treasures of the 20th Century, Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection, Venice, Italy
You Belong Here: Place, People, and Purpose in Latinx Photography, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, USA
You Belong Here: Place, People, and Purpose in Latinx Photography, Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, USA
The Rose, Lumber Room, Portland, Oregon, USA
Image/Counterimage: VALIE EXPORT, Sanja Iveković, Tarrah Krajnak, Ana Mendieta, Carrie Mae Weems, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Dismantling Monoliths, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA, USA
Photo Brussels Festival, Hangar Photo Art Center, Brussels, Belgium
Field Notes from Unseen California, Punumbra Foundation, New York, USA
Refracting Histories, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL, USA
Books Revisited, Center for Book Arts, New York, NY, USA
Regards de Femmes, Fondation A, Brussels, Belgium
Landkrona Foto Festival, Landskrona, Sweden
Louis Roederer Arles Discovery Award Exhibition, Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France
Self-Portrait as Weston/as Bertha Wardell, 1927/2020, from Master Rituals II: Weston’s Nudes, Rencontres d’Arles & SNCF Gares & Connexions, Gare De Lyon & Gare d’Avignon, Paris & Avignon, France
It’s Negative, MIM gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Future Perfect, Study Hall Gallery, Pratt, Utica, NY, USA
Below the Surface, California State University, Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA, USA
In This Body of Mine, Frederick Layton Gallery, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee, WI, USA
El Jardín de Senderos Que Se Bifurcan (Photobook), Belfast Photo Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland
El Jardín de Senderos Que Se Bifurcan (Photobook), PhotoEspaña, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Spain
El Jardín de Senderos Que Se Bifurcan (Photobook), Unseen Amsterdam Book Fair, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Conceptual Feedback, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Biomythography: Reflexive Remix, University of Laverne Harris Gallery, La Verne, CA, USA
Displaced: Reconstituted Memories & Unsituated Bodies, SUR Biennial, Cerritos College, Norwalk, CA, USA
Ansel’s the Making of 40 Photographs, Hammer Museum, Video Screening, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Past, Present, Future, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Sismos, PGH Photo Fair, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
On the Shelf, Filter Photo Festival, Chicago, IL, USA
This is Collage, haphazard, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Found, Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA, USA
At Home in the World, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Dark Messengers, Central Features, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Radical Color, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, USA
Sismos79, with metropcs gallery, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, FL, USA
Eternal Om, metropcs gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Cast, Philadelphia Photographic Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
South Sound, with Ampersand Gallery, LA Art Book Fair, Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
South Sound, with Ampersand Gallery, NY Art Book Fair, PS1 MOMA, Long Island City, NY, USA
Fatal Strategies with Cynthia Reeves Gallery, Art13, London, UK
Fatal Strategies, Cynthia Reeves Gallery, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, FL, USA
Suite42Projects, Cynthia Reeves Gallery, Art Market San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
Photography V, Center For Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY, USA
Heart Abortion, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, USA
Heart Abortion, Canzani Center, Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, OH, USA
Heart Abortion, Live Performance, Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, MI, USA
Rehearse, Rewind, Repeat: Photography, Performance, Video, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA
Contemporary Photography and the Archive, CUNY Staten Island, New York, NY, USA
Askew: Contemporary Portraits, 215 Gallery, Burlington, VT, USA
The Body as Image, Philoctetes Center, New York, NY, USA
Women to Watch, Chaffee Art Center, Rutland, VT, USA
Women to Watch, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, USA
From Sun Pictures to Megapixels, Williamsburg Historical Art Center, Williamsburg, NY, USA
Selected Works: ND Photography Program, International Photo Festival, Pingyao, China
Breaking Ground, Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Technology of Meaning, Herron Gallery, Herron School of Art & Design, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Inclinations, Elmira College, Elmira, NY, USA
New Visions, W Hotels Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Wonderland, W Hotels Gallery, New York, NY, USA
First Look: Juried by Cindy Sherman & Adam Fuss, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY, USA
The Careful Photograph: Mercedes Dorame, Aaron Turner, William Camargo, Rafael Soldi, Lorena Molina, Sama Alshaibi, Nydia Blas, Zora J Murff, Tommy Kha, Public Lecture Series & Podcast Season featuring BIPOC Contemporary Photographers Exploring Race & Identity, Munroe Center for Social Inquiry on Racial Justice, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, USA
Latinx Photographers from LA to the Inland Empire: Tamara Cedre, Rodrigo Venezuela, Guadalupe Rosales, Public Lecture Series, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, USA
Unsettled Landscapes Symposium: Lucy Lippard, Edgar Heap of Birds, Natalia Diaz, Nanobah Becker, Gabriel Estrada, Laura Huertas Millan, Claudia Arteaga, Esteban Cabeza De Baca, Kathy Bancroft, Saskia Calderón, Public Symposium funded by the Mellon Foundation Grant, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, USA
Disappearing Grandmothers: Marathon Reading, Women’s Day Teach-Out, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, USA
Library Artist in Residence Initiative (LAIR): LA based artist Steve Rowell (2015) and Ecuadorian artist Saskia Calderón (2016), Claremont Consortium Honnold-Mudd Library, Claremont, CA, USA
Ecopoetics: Rafa Esparza & Aspen Mays, Workshop & Public Exhibition, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, USA
Tarrah Krajnak. RePose, Fw:Books
Tarrah Krajnak. Master Rituals II: Weston’s Nudes, TBW Books
Tarrah Krajnak. El Jardín de Senderos Que Se Bifurcan, DAIS Books (shortlisted for the Aperture Paris Photo First Book Award 2021)
Tarrah Krajnak. 1979: Contact Negatives (artist book)
Fondation A Stichting, Brussels, Belgium
Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France
Pinault Collection, Paris, France
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, NY, USA
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Cerritos College Permanent Collection, Norwalk, CA, USA
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE, USA
Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY, USA
Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY, USA
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, USA
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, USA
Zander Galerie
Schönhauser Straße 8
50968 Cologne
Germany
Zander Galerie
6 Rue Jacob
75006 Paris
France
