Glenna Gordon is a documentary photographer who seeks out unexpected narratives and humanity at its edges.
After nearly a decade of assignment and personal projects in Africa, she shifted to focusing on a divided America. She's also an EMT and a teacher.
She’s been commissioned by the New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and others.
She has won a World Press Award, American Photo, PDN, and other awards and was a finalist for the Eugene Smith Award. From 2011-2018, she was a lecturer at The New School in the Graduate Program of International Affairs, where she received the 2017-2018 Faculty Research Fund. She is the recipient of the 2019 Aftermath Project, and has received multiple grants from the Pulitzer Center and other funds.
Her book, “Diagram of the Heart,” (2016) was a NYTM and POYi photobook of the year, was exhibited in Moving Walls 23 at Open Society, The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Half King, and elsewhere.
Glenna is HEFAT certified and a FAA Part 107 Licensed Drone Pilot.
Based in Los Angeles, Califronia.
"There is a crack, a crack in everything/
That's how the light gets in."
-Leonard Cohen
Photo by Kathy Ryan
GRANTS
2019 Aftermath Project, America
2018 Faculty Research Fund, The New School, America
2017 Economic Hardship Reporting Project, America
2017 Pulitzer Center Grant, Nigeria
2016 Festival PhotoReporter Grant, Indonesia
2012 African Artists Foundation Residency, Nigeria
2009 Pulitzer Center Grant, Liberia
AWARDS
2017 Eugene Smith Award, Finalist
2017 PDN's Photo Annual, Personal Project of the Year
2016 American Photography 32
2016 POYi, Finalist for Photobook of the Year
2016 Athens Photo Festival, Finalist
2016 PDN's Photo Annual, Photobook of the Year
2015 World Press, Second Prize for News Series
2015 Aftermath Project, Finalist
2015 Social Documentary Network, Honorable Mention
2015 American Photography 312015 Flash Forward 15
2015 Prix Pictet, Finalist
2014 Lens Culture, Grand Prize
2013 PX3, First place in Portraiture
2013 Communication Arts
2013 American Photography 30
2013 Flash Forward 14
2013 Sony World Photography Awards, Shortlist
2013 FotoweekDC, Third Place
2013 International Photography Awards, Third Place Winner
2013 Flash Forward 13
2013 PDN Annual’s Project Award
2012 Critical Mass, Photo Lucida, Finalist
2012 Flash Forward 12, Honorable Mention
2012 International Photography Awards, Honorable Mention
2011 FotoWeekDC, Second Place
SELECT ARTIST TALKS & PANELS
2019 Columbia University, NY, Ethics of Covering Extremism
2019 National Press Club, DC, Reporting on Children in Conflict
2018 Univeristy of Chicago, Department of Anthropology
2018 Almaty, Kazakhstan, Future of Storytelling
2018 Detroit, Michigan, Documenting Detroit
2017 Fredericksburg, Norway, DOK 17
2017 Washington DC, Open Society
2017 Toronto, Canada, Ryerson University
2017 New York, Half King Photo Series
2016 Columbia University, panel on foreign correspondents
2015 Amsterdam, Netherlands, World Press Week
2015 New York, CUNY Journalism School
2015 New York, Photoville
2012 Lagos, Nigeria, Africa Artist Foundation
EXHIBITIONS & SCREENINGS
2017 Half King Photo Series, New York
2016 Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, New York
2016 Festival Photo Reporter, Saint-Brieuc, France
2015 Moving Walls, New York
2015 Photoville, Brooklyn, New York
2015 World Press Photo Exhibition, touring through 100 cities
2014 Renaissance Photography, Getty Images, London
2014 Look Between, Screening in Charlottesville, VA
2014 Invisible Migrations, Alice Austen Museum, New York
2014 Sony World Photography, Somerset House, London
2013 The New Show, Faculty Exhibit, New York
2013 Lagos Photo Festival, Exhibit at EkoGallery, Nigeria
2014 Everyday Africa, Lincoln Center, New York
2013 Cape Town Photo Slideshow, South Africa
2013 Thin Line Between Love & Hate, UPI, New York
2012 Traces, Bursa Photography Festival, Turkey
2012 Open Show, Half King
2012 In the Zone, Dart Society at CPW25, New York
2010 HumanKind, PowerHouse, New York Photo Festival
2009 Creative Visions Exhibit, Culturefix, New York
SELECT INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
Teju Cole interviews Glenna for The New Yorker's Page Turner: Photographing the Unphotographable
Displaced: Complicating Narratives, interview on IRC's podcast with Glenna's little brother Grant
Photographing Power, Magenta
Rallying behind Racism, Backstory Podcast
Time's Lightbox: My Most Important Photo
Raising the Stakes: Interview with LensCulture
Shooting for Change: Women Photojournalists Risk Their Lives for Communication Arts
The New Yorker's Photographers on their favorite Image from "The Americans" includes Glenna's selection
World Press Photo speaks with Glenna about Mass Abduction
Anatomy of a Photobook: Time's Lightbox on Diagram of the Heart
Caravan: Labor of Love
Reading the Pictures on Glenna Gordon's missing Nigerian Girls photos
National Geographic's Proof talks with Glenna about Nigerian weddings
American Photography: Wedding Crasher in Nigeria
PDN on the story behind the photo on Invisible Children