Today we’d like to introduce you to Tema Stauffer.
Hi Tema, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Durham, North Carolina, in 1973, although I grew up in the Midwest, where I got my start in photography at an art center in Kalamazoo, Michigan. My passion for photography, ignited by these black-and-white darkroom classes during my adolescence, led me to study it more seriously at Oberlin College and complete an MFA in photography at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1998. I lived in Chicago and Minneapolis before moving to New York City in my early thirties. After nearly a decade working as a photographer, arts writer, and adjunct professor in and around New York, I moved to Montreal in 2014 for my first full-time teaching position in the Department of Studio Arts at Concordia University. In 2017, I relocated again for a tenure-track position at East Tennessee State University, where I am now an associate professor of photography in the Department of Art & Design. I live in West Asheville and commute through the Blue Ridge Mountains to my job at ETSU. This past fall, Daylight Books published my second book of photographs, SOUTHERN FICTION, examining the settings that shaped the literary work of canonical 20th-century Southern writers.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I can’t imagine that forging a career in the arts or academia has been a smooth road for almost anyone. Obstacles and challenges abound in these fields. Some of my struggles have been the most common struggles of artists. I am finding a balance between pursuing creative and meaningful work and achieving some measure of financial stability and job security, along with navigating the highs and lows of a life in the arts and the ebb and flow of successes and frustrations. It took decades of persistence for me to reach a place in my forties where I could publish two photography books and traveling exhibitions of these bodies of work with considerable support from my university through research grants and secure a tenured faculty position. Some ongoing challenges include keeping up the hard work of making and exhibiting photographs and meeting the pressures and demands of a career in academia. But I also thrive from facing challenges and would be bored without them. I try to channel anxiety into motivation and focus daily on the practice and vocation of being an artist and a teacher, which includes a lot of correspondence, organization, and active participation in the arts community, both online and in person.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My most recent series of photographs, SOUTHERN FICTION, explores the history of the American South using its literary tradition as a road map, focusing on environments that have shaped the imaginations of 20th-century Southern writers during their formative years or throughout their lives and careers. The images portray domestic settings, vernacular architecture, and rural landscapes that visually resonate with the Deep South’s history, culture, and atmosphere. Between 2018 – 2021, I made road trips to Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to shoot large-format color photographs of settings associated with writers such as Flannery O’Connor, Alice Walker, Truman Capote, Harper Lee, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, and Richard Wright. The series depicts some of these writers’ former homes, sites relevant to their backgrounds and literary works, and the surrounding architecture and landscapes that shaped their fiction. This body of work has been exhibited at Tracey Morgan Gallery in Asheville and Auburn University in Alabama and is traveling to East Tennessee State University’s Reece Museum in the winter and the Baldwin Photographic Gallery at Middle Tennessee University in the spring.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
Few things in my life have been as rewarding as the creative collaborations I’ve experienced with the contributing writers and book designer Ursula Damm for my two photography books, as well as correspondence with art directors, editors, and writers for various arts publications. Novelist Xhenet Aliu and photo scholar Alison Nordström contributed insightful essays to my first book, UPSTATE, published by Daylight Books in 2018. My recent collaborations with writers Casey Cep, Lauren Rhoades, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, who wrote beautiful essays for SOUTHERN FICTION, were equally exciting and enriching. Their essays were published in The New Yorker, Salvation South, and Harper’s Magazine during the past year. I have also developed important relationships through working with the art director of Harper’s Magazine, Kathryn Humphries, and writer Kathryn Savage, who interviewed me for BOMB Magazine in 2020. I love the intellectual stimulation of corresponding and sharing ideas with these women. Of course, I have also appreciated the support from those in the arts community who have cheered me on during the various stages of making, exhibiting, and publishing these bodies of work. Those who wish to get to know my work better can look at my website, follow me on Instagram, and send me an email to be added to my mailing list for newsletters about exhibitions and events. SOUTHERN FICTION is available on my website and at bookstores around the country, such as Lemuria Books and the Eudora Welty House Bookstore in Jackson, Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville, City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, Square Books in Oxford, and McNally Jackson Books in Brooklyn. Inquiries about print sales should be directed to Tracey Morgan Gallery.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://temastauffer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/temastauffer/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tema.stauffer/
Image Credits:
All images copyright Tema Stauffer courtesy of Tracey Morgan Gallery
