Qiana Mestrich

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.

In response to the discernible lack of representation in her photography education, Mestrich founded the blog Dodge & Burn: Decolonizing Photography History in 2007. Featuring interviews with and profiles of photographers of color, the blog advocates for a more inclusive version of photography history, featuring contributions to the medium by and about underrepresented cultures. Her forthcoming book based on the blog’s past interviews is to be published (Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2021).

Throughout the years that I’ve been writing my blog, the responses I’ve gotten from readers point to a need to fill in the gaps within this dominant narrative of photography history and to establish a new history of contemporary photography that is recorded online. As a female photographer of color, my own work is autobiographical and also attempts to visualize life stories that I feel are largely invisible.”– Qiana Mestrich

As featured in sepiaEYE’s exhibition, Dress-Up, Mestrich’s series, “Namesake” and “Inherited Patterns” examines her namesake – the Qiana fabric created by Dupont in 1968. Due to savvy marketing, the fabric name became adopted for many African American girls in the years to follow. “Inherited Patterns” combines vintage photographs from the DuPont marketing archive with fragments of mug shot photos of other women named Qiana. These mug shots of predominantly Black and Latino women formed the basis for “Namesake,” and exploration of the use of the camera to identify and control “the criminal body.”

Qiana Mestrich lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. After her tenure as the Associate Director of Digital Content and Engagement at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, she became an adjunct professor in social media at the Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY). She is a 2013 graduate of the ICP-Bard College MFA in Advanced Photographic Practice and received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College with a concentration on photography.

Mestrich is the founder of the Dodge & Burn blog, co-editor of How We Do Both: Art and Motherhood (Secretary Press, 2012), and has published numerous books including Some Kind of War (2013), Invisible – Part I and Part II (2012), and Hard To Place (2015).

Recent exhibitions include London Art Fair’s Photo50 in 2018 and the BRIC Biennial Volume III in 2019. Exhibitions include; Hard To Place, Brooklyn Art Space, Brooklyn, NY (2016), Inherited Patterns, New York Public Library Picture Collection, New York, NY (2014 – 2015), The Project Space at Corridor Gallery/RUSH Arts, Brooklyn (2014) as well as group exhibitions including On Being Black, Arnika Dawkins Gallery, Atlanta, GA (2015).

QIANA MESTRICH

b. 1977, USA

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.

Community building and knowledge sharing is a vital part of Mestrich’s practice. In 2007, she founded Dodge & Burn: Decolonizing Photography History, an arts initiative that aims to diversify the medium’s history by advocating for photographers of color. Her forthcoming book based on the Dodge & Burn’s past interviews is to be published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

“Photography history, like many other histories, has an exclusive canon which includes a select few of mostly white males who have been recognized for their contributions to the medium. Established by curators Beaumont Newhall and John Szarkowski, this canon is taught in schools as part of the curriculum of photography history and it is perpetuated online in photography blogs/websites. Notable African Americans and other photographers of color around the world making work at the same time throughout the history of photography have been “dodged” and “burned” from the canon.

Throughout the years that I’ve been writing my blog, the responses I’ve gotten from readers point to a need to fill in the gaps within this dominant narrative of photography history and to establish a new history of contemporary photography that is recorded online. As a female photographer of color, my own work is autobiographical and also attempts to visualize life stories that I feel are largely invisible.”
– Qiana Mestrich

Mestrich has written essays on photography for exhibition catalogs and published critical writing in art journals such as Light Work’s Contact Sheet, En Foco’s Nueva Luz and SPE’s exposure. She is also co-editor of the book How We Do Both: Art and Motherhood (Secretary Press), a diverse collection of honest responses from contemporary artists who dare to engage in the creative endeavors of motherhood and making art.

In 2022, Mestrich was awarded the Magnum Foundation Counter Histories grant for her @WorkingWOC Instagram archive project on women of color in the corporate workplace. She has been exhibited worldwide, including the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt in 2021, London Art Fair’s Photo50 in 2018, and the BRIC Biennial Volume III in 2019. Her work is held in the Peggy Cooper Cafritz collection of contemporary art and private collections in the United States.

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).

QIANA MESTRICH

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