Working in photography, video, and installation Lydia A. Harris focuses on investigating what motivates us individually and as a society, tackling issues of inequality as it relates to power dynamics.
Harris is an award-winning photographer currently working on a major documentary series portraying the original homeowners of a historically black neighborhood in Atlanta, GA. The photography portion of this project was featured in a solo show at the PRC in Boston from September 3 to Oct 12, 2013. A 130-page artist book titled “The Passing of Collier Heights” has been completed winning the First Annual Graphic Arts Award and was shortlisted for the Edition Lidu – Art Books Wanted International Award. She is currently working creating a short non-fiction video about the project. The work will also be featured at the Hammonds House Museum in Atlanta GA in May 0f 2015.
In 2014, she was a Photolucida Critical Mass finalist and alternate for the Atlanta Photography Group’s Portfolio Show. Along with several exhibitions related to her graduate thesis, she was a co-curator of “Things We Carry: Objects in America”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA– March 8 – Aug 17.
Her work was shown in a September 2012 solo exhibition at the Firehouse Center for the Arts Gallery in Newburyport, MA. “Ephemera” featured images from her series “Finding Beauty Through Fear” and “Take Me With You”. In 2011 she exhibited photographs from “Without Love – Death” as the featured artist on Northeast Online (NEO), a monthly one-person, web-based exhibit showcased by the Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA. Additionally, her work has been seen in The Light Factory’s 4th Juried Annuale (Charlotte, NC) and UMaine Museum of Art Photo National 2011 (Bangor, ME) receiving the Director’s Purchase award for “Hendrie” which is now in their permanent collection. Her image “Jacob” won best photography and best in show at the Newburyport Art Association’s 15th Regional Show.
Lydia received an MFA at the School at the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, Boston along with a Museum Studies Certificate, and a Professional Certificate in Photography from Maine Media College in 2010. Originally trained as a Microbiologist, she holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine and a Master’s degree from the University of Maryland.