Photographer Gillian Laub

Gillian Laub (b. 1975) is a photographer born in Chappaqua New York.  She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in comparative literature before studying photography at the International Center of Photography, New York where her love of storytelling and family narratives began. She was selected for the World Press Photo’s Joop Swart Masterclass in 2003 and as the winner of Nikon’s Storyteller Award for her work in the Middle East.  With the support of the Jerome Foundation, Laub’s first monograph Testimony was published by Aperture in 2007 to critical acclaim.  This body of work is comprised of portraits and testimonies from Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians all directly and indirectly affected by the complicated geopolitical context in which they live. David Rieff says of this work,
“The bravery of the photos in this series is that they show what even funerals do not show: the true horror of war and terrorism. They do so in a way that does not seek to turn the young people portrayed into types or leech them of their beliefs or prejudices -- of their human specificity, in other words. To consider them is to be reminded not just of human cruelty and human stupidity but also of human tenacity. I can't go on, I'll go on. The words are Samuel Beckett's, but the wisdom they reflect is the common wisdom of everyone portrayed here, whatever else divides them."
In 2007, Laub was awarded Aperture’s Emerging Artist Award.  She contributes regularly to The New York Times Magazine and TIME Magazine, among many other publications and commissions.  Her work is widely exhibited and collected. She currently lives in New York and is represented by Bonni Benrubi Gallery.

                                           >>>Gillian Laub