Joseph Kominkiewicz

I'm interested in expressions of individuality and showing them in the context of a broader cultural, political and intellectual history. Growing up in Indiana, I first encountered photography as a child when my mother gave me her very own Olympus SLR. For some time, I neglected it only to rediscover it later in life. I've since devoted myself to it as a full-time pursuit next to my work as a freelance translator (German to English). My ongoing long-term project is the culture of hip hop in North Carolina through which I've discovered a wealth of stories that I help to tell through music videos and promotional photography. I'm constantly trying to hone my technical abilities through large-format film photography and working with traditional darkroom processes.

My own academic work as a graduate student focused on archival research involving individual histories. Looking to establish intellectual biographies, I made some deep dives into the archives searching for neglected sources to gain insight into the work of authors living in the sixteenth, eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Nowadays, I've been focused on capturing images of the events that have moved me and the people around me. The work I'm most proud of was showing the wave of protests that unfolded around me during the summer of last year. I would like to continue that work.