Group Critique #1: MEET THE PHOTOPHLO FACULTY
February 22, March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 & April 5, 2022
TUESDAYS 6:30-9:30PM ET
LEVEL: Intermediate/Advanced
LIMITED TO 10 STUDENTS
CLASS FEE: $375
ABOUT THE CLASS
Hosted by PhotoPhlo Founder Matthew Baum, this fast paced 7-week online group critique class will feature guest visits by PhotoPhlo Founding Faculty members Isaac Diggs, Elinor Carucci, Stacy Mehrfar, Corinne Botz and Qiana Mestrich.
In this course’s unique format, students will share 10 photos every class, modifying their presentation from week to week by substituting at least three of the photos with other images. Students will receive regular feedback from Matthew and the class, as well as fresh insights from guest instructors during weeks two through six. Through this process, students will become more attuned to how individual images are impacting their body of work and use this information to discover and create edits that best express their artistic intention.
This class is meant for Intermediate/Advanced photographers who are developing or initiating a project and have experience offering and receiving critical feedback.
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PhotoPhlo Founder Matthew Baum is a photographer and educator based in the Taconic Mountains of northwestern Connecticut. He earned a BA in American history from Brown University, studied architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Matthew has been on faculty at NYU-Tisch School of the Arts, University of California-Davis, Hunter College and the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he has taught historical, conceptual and technically-based seminars and studio classes to undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students. He was also Co-Founder and Director of the VisuaLife photography education program, working with underprivileged youth in NYC. Utilizing a variety of creative approaches, Matthew’s work has consistently explored the social and cultural fabric of the United States through both its historical record and present-day circumstances. Matthew’s photography has been exhibited widely at venues in the United States and abroad.
Isaac Diggs is a photographer and educator. For two decades he has photographed the urban fabric of cities and communities in the United States and abroad. His work has been exhibited in the United States and Japan, and is part of the collections of the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art and MOMA, among others. Diggs has received support from the Asian Cultural Council, The Center for Photography at Woodstock and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. His work has been published in Vanity Fair, Harper’s and i-D Magazine. He received his B.A. in English Literature at Columbia University, his M.F.A. in photography from the Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, and studied independently with Daido Moriyama and Stephen Shore. Diggs has taught in the BFA and MFA programs at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His three books include 125th: Time in Harlem (with Edward Hillel), Middle Distance or the Anxiety of Influence: Photographs from Los Angeles (2019), and Lagos (2019). His fourth title, Electronic Landscapes: Music, Space and Resistance in Detroit (with Edward Hillel), was shortlisted for the Aperture/Paris Photo Book Award in 2021.

Elinor Carucci (b. 1971, Israel) graduated in 1995 from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem with a degree in photography and moved to New York that same year. Her work has been included in many exhibitions worldwide including solo shows at Edwynn Houk gallery, Fifty One Fine Art Gallery, FoMU, and Gagosian Gallery-London and group shows at The Museum of Modern Art New York, MoCP Chicago and The Photographers' Gallery, London. Elinor’s photographs are in many prominent collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Houston Museum of Fine Art. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Details, New York Magazine, W, Aperture, ARTnews and many other publications. Elinor was awarded the ICP Infinity Award in 2001, The Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and NYFA in 2010 and has published four monographs to date: Closer, 2002, Diary of a Dancer, 2005, MOTHER, 2013, and Midlife, 2019. Carucci teaches at the graduate program of Photography and Lens based art at School of Visual Arts and is represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery, NY.

Corinne Botz is an artist and educator, whose practice engages with issues including narrative, space, gender, and the body. Her photographs have been widely exhibited, and her published books combining her photography and writing include The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death (The Monacelli Press, 2004) and Haunted Houses (The Monacelli Press, 2010). Botz’s photographs have been internationally exhibited at such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Wurttembergischer Kunstverein (Stuttgart, Germany); De Appel (Amsterdam), Turner Contemporary (UK), and Benrubi Gallery (NYC). Her short film “Bedside Manner” (2016) won the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC. She has held residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; Atlantic Center for the Arts; Akademie Schloss Solitude; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Mana Contemporary. Botz is the recipient of both the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Jerome Foundation grants. She received her BFA from Maryland Institute, College of Art and her MFA from Bard College. Botz is on the faculty of International Center of Photography and John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY).
Stacy Mehrfar is a first-generation Iranian-American artist. Drawing from personal history, her photographs, video installations, and photobooks raise questions about how we build and sustain 'community.' Central to her practice is examining the interdependent relationship between the individual and the group and how landscape shapes identity. Mehrfar has exhibited her works at TEDxSydney, ClampArt, International Center of Photography (ICP), Australian Centre of Photography, and State Library of New South Wales. She is the recipient of several grants, including the Australian Postgraduate Award and Australian Artist Grant. Stacy has received positive press coverage by Collector Daily, L'œil de la Photographie, and BJP, and her works are published in Der Greif, Aint Bad, Fraction. She holds an MFA (Research) from UNSW School of Art & Design in Sydney, Australia, a BA from UW Madison, and a certificate in Creative Practices from ICP in New York. Her second photobook, The Moon Belongs to Everyone, published by GOST Books, London (2021), was named one of Photo Eye's Best Books of 2021. Most recently, Stacy was nominated for the 2022 Silver List. Stacy currently resides in NYC.
Qiana Mestrich is a photography-focused, interdisciplinary artist based in New York. Born to parents from Panama and Croatia, Mestrich's work often references Black, mixed-race experiences from her perspective as a first-generation American. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in private collections. Knowledge sharing and community building is a vital part of Mestrich’s practice. In 2007 she founded Dodge & Burn: Decolonizing Photography History (est. 2007), an arts initiative that aims to diversify the medium’s history by advocating for photographers of color. Dodge & Burn began as a blog and now functions as a critique group. A graduate of the ICP-Bard College MFA in Advanced Photographic Practice, Mestrich received her B.A. with a concentration in photography from Sarah Lawrence College. She is an adjunct faculty in photography and social media at the Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY) and is represented in New York by sepiaEYE gallery.