Honorable Mention / 2018 / Press / Other_PJ

Nevertheless, We Persist

The United States has erupted in protests since the Trump administration took power on January 20, 2017. Nowhere is this more visible than in Washington, DC. Fraught with fear, anxiety and deep mistrust, this is a critical time in U.S. history.

This resistance in all its variations is a constant and present movement, the likes we have not seen against a sitting U.S. president. These photographs are comprised from a number of different events that have taken place since the inception of The Women's March on Washington on January 21, 2017.

As this series developed, I realized it was important to give voice to those I was photographing by asking them why they were protesting. My desire is that these images not only act as historical documents, but also illustrate the breadth and depth of why everyday Americans believe deeply in this resistance.

Carla Cioffi is a documentary and fine art photographer. She was born in Caracas, Venezuela to a Sicilian father and an American mother.

In 2007, Carla was hired as a photographer/photo archivist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. While at NASA, she documented everything from the end of the space shuttle program, congressional hearings on Capitol Hill, events at the White House, to extensive travel to Russia and Kazakhstan covering human spaceflight to and from the International Space Station. Her reportage work has been distributed worldwide through news and photo agencies such as the AP, Reuters, The Washington Post, The Guardian, NPR, Getty Images. Her documentary work on the U.S. Resist movement has been shared on social media by LensCulture, Photograph Magazine, Exposed DC and The American Collective.

She is the first American woman to photograph astronauts launching to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and remains the only American women to photograph the return to earth from the open door of a Russian military MI-8 helicopter. An adventure indeed. Following NASA, she spent time living and working in Qatar as a freelance photographer.

Clients include Vraiment, Nancy Cost Design, RasGas Company Limited - Qatar, Northwestern University in Qatar, Xi'an Jiatong-Liverpool University in China, Hamad Medical Corporation - Qatar, Qatar Financial Authority Centre, International SOS/Aspire Lifestyles, Shutters on the Beach. In addition, her photographs have been shown in a number of group exhibitions across the United States, and will be exhibited in Europe in 2018.

She holds a B.A. in Russian Studies, and an M.F.A. in Photography. Carla is currently based in the Washington, DC area.

Awards Awards -

2018
PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris - Honorable Mention

The Photography Gala Awards - Finalist
The 10th Edition of Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers

2006 International Photography Awards - Honorable Mention

2002 American Photography 18 - Selected

2002 National Graduate Seminar Fellow
National Graduate Seminar Fellowship in collaboration with The Photography Institute at Columbia University in New York City

Selected Group Shows -

2018
Women Seen By Women, Galeria Valid Foto - Barcelona, Spain

5th Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography - Barcelona, Spain

2017
GLOW, The Athenaeum Gallery - Alexandria, VA

We The People, University of Virginia Law Library - Charlottesville, VA

Post-Presence: An Instagram Gallery Takeover, Rayko Photo Center - San Francisco, CA
Jurors: PHROOM Magazine & NOICE Mag

2012
Can You Hear Me Now? Stonecrop Gallery - Ogunguit, ME

2007
1st Annual International Plastic Camera Show, Rayko Photo Center - San Francisco, CA
Juror: Ann Jastrab

In the Flesh, Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center -
Alexandria, VA
Juror: Tim Doud, Professor of Art at American University

2005
Exposure x 9, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts - Grand Rapids, MI

Nothing to be Done, E3 Gallery - New York, NY

2002 - 2003
Young Photography: Multiple Expressions
Shown at:
Visual Studies Workshop - Rochester, NY
Anderson Gallery - University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY
School of the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, MA

2002
The Projected Image: Visual to Political
Shown at:
The Gallery at the J. Wayne Reitz Union, University of Florida
LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, NYC

National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association - Cambridge, MA
Juror: Lisa Dennison, Chief Curator and Deputy Director, The Guggenheim Museum