Originally from Ding Dong, Texas, Whitney assisted her parents in loading their 35mm cameras with film in hotel rooms on vacation from a young age. She received her BFA in Art, with a concentration in Photography, from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2017. After graduation, she accepted the Photo Lab Coordinator position at UTA, assisting students in navigating lighting studios, digital print labs, an alternative process lab, and a black and white darkroom. More passionate for the black and white darkroom, Whitney has found that the safelights have proven to be a safe space since graduation. Since 2015, she has assisted instructor and photographer Scott Hilton in professional projects. Additionally, she assisted both renowned wet plate photographer Lisa Elmaleh in tintype workshops and Alan Ross in fine art printing during their DCP workshops.

Lisa Elmaleh is an American visual artist, educator, and documentarian based in Hampshire County, West Virginia. She specializes in large-format work in tintype, glass negative, and celluloid film. Since 2007, she has been traveling across the US documenting American landscapes, life, and culture.

Born in Miami, Florida (1984), Lisa completed a BFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2007, during which time she was awarded the Silas Rhodes Scholarship. Upon graduating, she received the prestigious Tierney Fellowship to work on a project that evolved into an in-depth visual documentation of the impact of climate change on the Everglades. The culmination of this project resulted in a book titled Everglades published in 2016 by Zatara Press. 

Elmaleh’s work has been exhibited nationwide and recognized by the Aaron Siskind Foundation, Puffin Foundation, The Tierney Foundation, amongst others. Her work has been published by Harper’s Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, CNN, The New York Times, National Geographic, Oxford American, Garden & Gun, and NPR, amongst others.

In 2010, Lisa began to work on a long-term ongoing project documenting traditional Appalachian musicians through tintype portraiture as a historic documentation of American culture.

In 2012, while still living in New York, she worked on a one-year visual autobiography, where she made daily self-portraits with her 8×10 camera to give a raw inside look at her life as a female visual artist.

Since 2014, Lisa has lived in Paw Paw, West Virginia. Throughout the years, she has been documenting the landscape, culture, and community around her.

In 2017, Lisa began traveling from the Appalachian Mountains, across to the west coast of America, and down to the US-Mexico border to document the landscape, culture, people, and environment in a time of great political divide. This ongoing project combines portraiture, landscape, and documentary photography.

Lisa travels in truck containing her bed, and a portable wet plate darkroom. She has a traditional black and white darkroom where she prints in West Virginia.

Ed Kashi is a prolific photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker and educator dedicated to documenting the social and geopolitical issues that define our times. He has covered topics as diverse as the impact of oil in Nigeria, the protestant community in Northern Ireland, the lives of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the impact of an aging society through his groundbreaking project, Aging in America, climate change, the plight of Syrian refugees, and the global epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease among agricultural workers. A sensitive eye and an intimate and compassionate relationship to his subjects are signatures of his intense and unsparing work. A member of VII Photo Agency since 2010, Kashi has been recognized for his complex imagery and its compelling rendering of the human condition.

His early adoption of hybrid visual storytelling has produced a number of influential short films and in 2015 he was named Multimedia Photographer of the Year. Kashi’s embrace of new approaches to visual storytelling has led to creative social media and printed projects for a range of clients including National Geographic, Open Society Foundations, The New Yorker, MSNBC, GEO Germany, Fortune, Human Rights Watch, International Medical Corps, MediaStorm, NBC.com, New York Times Magazine, Oxfam, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and TIME magazine. From implementing a unique approach to photography and filmmaking in his 2006 Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook, to of the moment Instagram coverage of Hurricane Sandy for TIME Magazine in 2012, Kashi continues to create powerful imagery and engage with the world in new ways.

A leading voice in the photojournalism world, Kashi frequently lectures on a wide range of topics for arts institutions, universities, schools and professional organizations. His work has been published and exhibited worldwide, receiving numerous awards and honors. Through his editorial assignments and personal projects Kashi has published eight books, including Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, THREE, and Photojournalisms.

In 2002, Kashi founded Talking Eyes Media in partnership with his wife, writer + filmmaker Julie Winokur. The non-profit company has produced numerous award-winning short films, exhibits, books, and multimedia pieces that explore significant social issues. They are currently engaged in a 5-year storytelling project with Rutgers University in Newark focused on immigration for which they recently received a two year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kashi is also on the Board of Directors of the Catchlight Foundation.

Richard trained in photography and sculpture at the University of New Mexico. While mastering the technical aspects of lighting he has retained an artist’s understanding of subject and context. His commercial work is photographing hospitality, food & beverage, architecture and people in paradise for clients like Disney, Hyatt International, Intercontinental, Rosewood, Shangri-La and Sheraton Grand.

Richard has logged over 5 years of assignments shooting and directing crews in the US, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean, “I strive for an understated elegance in the images, if the viewer has the experience of actually being in the space in their mind’s eye and not noticing the photography, I have done my job well.”

He was an early adopter of digital imaging which has led to a deep understanding of the process. Richard says he feels fortunate to have lived through the digital revolution and had time to absorb that universe slowly, layer upon layer. Though he does confess that he works hard to make his digital files look like the 4”x5” transparencies he loved for so many years.

Richard is committed to passing on the craft and joy of image making by teaching classes and workshops at the Dallas Center for Photography, University of Texas at Arlington, the University of North Texas, Texas Woman’s University and as a contributor to lynda.com. “Learning is a process and I see myself as a lifelong learner continually taking on new subjects, being in a state of Beginners Mind. My commitment as an educator is to share complicated material in a way that is easily understood by the student regardless of their experience level. My approach is of mutual respect, honoring the knowledge and experience of everyone in the room.”

Richard joins his wife, fine art photographer and artist bookmaker, Susan kae Grant in supporting and participating in the visual culture of Dallas and New York. Frequently collaborating and always discussing ideas and approaches in the art making process makes them a great team. In addition to photography Richard has recorded ambient sound around the world that he uses in sound design for his animation and motion work.

A Dallas-based freelance photojournalist McLean’s foundation of storytelling skills comes from his strong news background at the Dallas Times Herald. As a staff photographer for the Dallas Times Herald he served on a reporting team that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the crash of Delta flight 191 at the DFW airport. McLean is a frequent speaker and workshop instructor for Journalism associations, Universities and Media organizations throughout the country. He is a co-author of “Get The Picture” and “Grow your know in Photography.” McLean developed and taught an online digital photojournalism curriculum for a University based in Colorado. He recently developed a Photojournalism course sequence for “A Backpack Journalist” which is an educational services and event support company, providing curriculum, workshops and training for the US Military and their families. Presently McLean is a photography content expert for Jostens Publishing and for the past three years he has worked as a visual content lead and instructor in photography at the West Point US Military Academy and the US Naval Academy.

Elizabeth Mellott’s passion in the arts is to build community through education, creativity and service. Elizabeth serves as a full-time professor of photography and a Service Learning Coordinator at Collin College in Plano, Texas. As a professor, she teaches photography and book arts.  As an artist, she creates art pertaining to social and environmental concerns. Mellott exhibits internationally with her work housed in collections including the Museum Fine Arts in Houston and the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona.  She has hosted numerous community art workshops and art presentations, both nationally and internationally.  Elizabeth’s commitment to art is with the goal to enrich lives, both individually and communally.

Artist, Educator, and Photographer. Michael Mulvey’s work is rooted in the visualization of sociological practices.

His research interests range from capturing the cultural divide along the border with Mexico to the gentrification of West Dallas Neighborhoods, using methods of the documentary, alternative process, and conceptually constructed still lifes to create various pathways to access cultural complexities. His practice includes the use of analog and digital devices as well as site-specific installation and photo sculpture. His most recent work features pictograms made in cameraless space on the film of items collected from the land during the gentrification process. They represent the memory of what came before and are now in a permanent visual record formed in historic photographic processes.

Michael continues his work in journalism where he first started his creative and visual career of storytelling with images. Earning the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2006 while a staff photographer with The Dallas Morning News. The award was for coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, America’s most costly weather event, and the beginning of the global warming trend resulting in extreme energy super storms. 

Michael holds an M.F.A in Studio Art from the College of Visual Arts at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, and a B.S in Journalism from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.

Nikola Olic is a Serbian photographer living and working right here in the Dallas/Fort-Worth area, focusing on architectural photography and abstract structural quotes that reimagine architecture in playful, dimensionless and disorienting ways. He is represented by Afterimage Gallery in Dallas, Subject Art Gallery in New York City, Espaces Atypiques in France, and Bartselona Gallery in Serbia.

His photography has appeared in publications and public and private collections around the world, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired Magazine, The Guardian Newspaper, BBC News, Forbes, Dezeen, USA Today and many others. He was also featured in all major local media outlets, including The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Observer, Dallas Architecture Forum, Advocate Magazine, Patron Magazine and D Magazine.

After receiving an electrical engineering degree from MIT, Jim worked at a scientific instrumentation division of Hewlett-Packard before involvement in 8 early stage technology companies including 4 startups of his own. He is currently the CEO of LumenAstra, a startup commercializing a patent from the University of Colorado for a non-invasive, wearable core body temperature sensor. For kicks, Jim plays the piano, bikes a couple thousand miles a year and stares into space through his telescope. Always pursuing efficiency, he has combined two of his favorite hobbies by entering the world of astrophotography and loves sharing it with anyone who will listen (or has no way to leave).

Peter’s interest in photography started while attending an international high school in Athens, Greece where he often cut classes to spend time in the darkroom. His degree is in TV & film production with a minor in graphics and printing. He worked as an educational video producer for four years while starting to shoot stills professionally and building his portfolio.

In the early 80s he started freelancing with a specialty in travel and editorial photography. For the next decade or so he completed dozens of assignments for Smithsonian Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, Travel Holiday, Business Week, Time, Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek, The Dallas Morning News, WGBH and others. He also shot commercial and industrial work for small and large companies including Texaco, 7-11, CompUSA, AMEX and Fluor.

Some of Peter’s magazine covers

When his first child was born in the early 90s, he wanted to be closer to home so Peter backed off the location work, leased some studio space and started shooting indoors. For the next decade he was heavily involved in producing top-selling images for the stock photo business, shooting for Tony Stone Worldwide, which later became part of Getty Images.

Peter has owned The Spot Studio, Inc. since 1998 and started offering classes in 2009. Today, Dallas Center for Photography keeps him busy with teaching and finding other instructors to bring world class photographic education to Dallas.

Humna is an American-Pakistani multidisciplinary artist interested in the human body and suppressed emotions. Her works explore concealed feelings of trauma, stress, anxiety and depression through a variety of mediums such as painting, drawing, ceramics, and photography. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, she grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and later earned her BFA from TWU and an MFA in Intermedia.  She currently teaches alt process classes at UTA.

Alan Ross has earned an international reputation as a specialist in the art of black-and-white photography – as an artist, educator and master printer. He was Ansel Adams’ Photographic Assistant in Carmel from 1974 to 1979, and integrally involved with Adams’ books, teaching in Yosemite, and production of fine prints. Ross is the exclusive printer of Ansel Adams’ Yosemite Special Edition Prints, an assignment Adams personally selected him for in 1975. He makes each print by hand from Adams’ original negatives using traditional darkroom techniques. 

As a photographic educator, Ross specializes in helping photographers at any level to realize and express their photographic vision. He has led workshops in Yosemite & across the United States, Ireland, Italy, Australia and China. 

Ross’s tonally exquisite black-and-white photograph prints, painstakingly hand-crafted in the darkroom, are prized by collectors and hang in collections throughout the world. 

Aline Smithson is a visual artist, editor, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. She is best known for her conceptual portraiture and a practice that uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, her work is influenced by the elevated unreal. She has exhibited widely including over 40 solo shows at a variety of international institutions and her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and PDN.

Smithson is the Founder and Editor- in-Chief of Lenscratch, a daily journal on photography. In 2012, she received the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography for her contributions to the photographic community and she also received the prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award from CENTER. In 2014 and 2019, Smithson’s work was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50. In 2015, the Magenta Foundation published her first significant monograph, Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography, and in 2016, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum commissioned Smithson to create a series of portraits for the upcoming Faces of Our Planet Exhibition. In 2018 and 2019, her work was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the Taylor Wessing Prize. Kris Graves Projects published her book, LOST II: Los Angeles and included her work in SOLACE and On Death. Peanut Press released her monograph, Fugue State, in Fall of 2021. In 2022, Smithson was recognized as a Hasselblad Heroine.