F8 AND BE THERE Opening Reception
ARTISTS BIOS
ÁNGEL FRANCO is originally from the South Bronx and was introduced to photography as a student of the Benedict J. Fernandez Photo Film Workshop. After receiving a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC, Franco freelanced for national and international publications until hired byThe New York Times where he worked over thirty years as a staff photographer. He covered the city, national, and international stories and won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Franco received grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Concerned Photographers’ Fund, and has exhibited in galleries and museums. He is currently studying drawing and painting at the Art Students League of New York, working on photographic studies of the Mexican /US border, and teaching workshops at theSchool of The New York Times. @angelfranco_nyt
PHILIP GREENBERG is a New York Times photographer. Mr. Greenberg has been published in Newsweek, Time Magazine, People Magazine, Esquire, Business Week, US News and World Report and other publications and periodicals. His work has appeared in exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and Columbia University Journalism School. He has taught workshops and lecture series on photojournalism at the International Center Of Photography and New York University. @philipgreenbergphoto
GEORGE M. GUTIÉRREZ is a New York artist, photojournalist, and curator. Mr. Gutierrez has won over a hundred awards including the Pulitzer Prize. In addition to painting, and photography, his work includes OpEd Art, illustration, album cover art, drawing, collage, and assemblage. He’s been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair and other periodicals and publications. Mr. Gutiérrez has studios in Yonkers, and Riverdale, and lives in Riverdale with his wife, Dr. Romina Carrillo Gutiérrez. @gmg423
DAVID HANDSCHUH is an award winning photographer, writer, editor, videographer and educator who has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize in Photojournalism. Mr. Handschuh has been an adjunct professor in photojournalism at NYU for 30 years and at SUNY Purchase since 2019. His work has been published in The New York Daily News and other publications periodicals publ
HARRY MANDEL is an internationally known photographer, born in a DP Camp just outside of Munich, Germany where his parents were Holocaust Survivors.The only connection Mr. Mandel had with his grandparents, and relatives, were the photographs that his parents showed him. He was fascinated by the images a camera could make. The photographs he saw growing up, as well as in periodicals like Life Magazine, and Look Magazine influenced him for the rest of his life. Mr. Mandel saw photography as both capturing a moment in history, and an art form. He has won international awards and recognition and been published in various periodicals and commercial TV. @photosbyharrymandel
COCO McPHERSON is a journalist and photographer reporting on labor rights, environmental justice, and the impact of the climate crisis on New York City’s coastal communities. Her photographs have been exhibited at the Bronx Documentary Center, at Photoville, and in metro-area galleries and studios. In 2019, as a Claremont Documentary Project Fellow, she collaborated with teenage residents of Claremont Village, a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) public housing development in the South Bronx, to tell stories about the community through photography. Those collaborations are ongoing. Her bylines appear in Capital & Main, Hell Gate, Gothamist, Fast Company, Rolling Stone, Five Journal, Vibe, and The Village Voice, where Ms. McPherson was also a weekly columnist. Her current projects focus on the nationwide effort to privatize public housing. @coco_goodbyenewyork
ADAM SCHER is from New York City. From an early age he was interested in both music and photography. In High School he was mentored in photography with photojournalist and book author Herb Snitzer. After graduating, he began work in commercial and product photography and at age 20, he started working in the darkroom of The New York Times as a lab technician and assistant photographer and later, as photographic printer and image specialist. In 1990 he began working as a freelance photographer for them as well. Mr. Scher is also a lifelong musician and has composed music, played in bands, did live and session work which resulted in him appearing on several albums and film soundtracks. Eventually, melding both of his main interests led him naturally into the world of being a concert photographer. Scher’s work for The New York Times resulted in several hundred of his concert photographs published along with their music reviews. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and many other worldwide music magazines from Germany to Japan. In addition, he has album cover credits, books and promotional materials to his name. @adam_scher_photography
DEVON VALENTIN-DIXON was born and raised in the Bronx. Though primarily working with watercolor as a medium, she is no stranger to photography, print-making and mixed media, and enjoys blending techniques and materials. She draws inspiration heavily from pop culture, New York City, and her many years teaching here at the Riverdale Y, teaching Hands on Art to 1st-3rd Grade and kindergarten students. She has shown her work in collaboration with the Odiosas Collective in support of the Bronx Social Center, and at Lehman College supporting the Robin Hood Organization. @thedevonraepaints