About
Chad Ress, born in Louisville, Kentucky lives in Ojai, California
Ress is an artist and photographer working primarily with image, text, video and sound as a means to explore how abstract political, economic and environmental processes manifest themselves in the physical world.
Recent clients include Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, Toyota, Liberty Mutual, Pirelli F1, MIT Technology Review and Progressive. His work has been recognized in Photo District News; American Photography; Communication Arts; The International Photography Awards; The One Show; D&AD Awards; The Forward Thinking Museum; and the PH Museum.
Ress first became interested in photography under the influence of the extensive archive of FSA photographs in Louisville’s Speed Museum. His project America Recovered - A Survey of the ARRA looks to reconsider that legacy in the context of the recent economic collapse and subsequent stimulus legislation. It was accepted at Center - Photo Santa Fe; awarded distinction by The Forward Thinking Museum; and published in Time Magazine’s Lightbox, The Wall Street Journal and Harper's Magazine.
Ress recently completed a fellowship with the Center for Social Cohesion and Arizona State University and in conjunction with the New America Foundation. The resulting archive of images documents where Americans go to find a sense of community and connection to place. A series on the California aqueduct was recently published in UCLA's BOOM Magazine and included in "After the Aqueduct," an exhibition at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. America Recovered was featured at the 2015 Reyner Banham Symposium with a theme "The Aesthetics of Citizenship" at The University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. In 2019, America Recovered was published by Actar, with a foreward by Bonie Honig and essays by Miriam Paeslack and Jordan H. Carver.
He currently lives in Ojai, California, with his partner and son.
Select Grants / Awards / Fellowships
Regents Fellowship, University of California, 2020
New York State Coucil for the Arts (nysca), 2018
Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University, funding support, 2018
University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, research support, 2017
Katz Fellow, CSC, New America Foundation, 2013
Santa Fe Review Center, 2011
Forward Thinking Museum Selected, 2011
PDN 30 Nominated, 2013
AI-AP American Photography 26, 2010
Luerzer’s Archive 200 Best Photographers, 2013, 2009
AI-AP American Photography 24, 2011
International Photography Awards, 2010
Communication Arts Advertising Annual, 2006
AFM Minnesota Best Photography Gold, 2006
Luerzer’s Archive’s Best Campaigns, 2006
PDN 30 Nominated, 2006
D&AD Awards Public Service Campaign Gold, 2006
Communication Arts Photography Annual, 2003-2004
Visiting Artist / Guest Lectures
Peter Reyner Banham Fellowship Symposium "The Aesthetics of Citizenship,” Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, Jordan Carver, Organizer + Fellow, 2015
University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA.,
Guest of Professor Richard Ross, 2015
University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA., Art Department Honors Symposium, guest of Instructor Stephanie Washburn
University of California Los Angeles, CA., Guest of Professor Nicole Belle, 2013
University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA.,
Guest of Professor Richard Ross, 2009
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA., 2008
Chouinard Foundation, Los Angeles, CA., 2007
Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA., 2007
Selected Publications / Exhibitions
Over the Fence, The Architecture Foundation, Santa Barbara, CA, 2022
Chad Ress: America Recovered, Lensccratch, Aline Smithson, January 21, 2020
America Recovered, Actar Publishers, Barcelona & New York, Essays by Bonnie Honig, Jordan H. Carver and Miriam Paeslack, 200 pp., 50 ills., hardcover, ISBN: English 978-19-45150-93-7, Summer 2019
All Over This Land, Harper’s Magazine, October 2017.
Picturing Policy: How Visual Culture Shapes the Urban Built Environment, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Miriam Paeslack, 2016.
After the Aqueduct, Group Show, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), 2015
The Great Republican Land Heist, Harper's Magazine, February 2015, text by Christopher Ketchum.
Weed Whackers - Monsanto, glyphosate, and the war on invasive species, Harper's Magazine, September 2015, text by Andrew Cockburn.
California Farmers Dig Deeper for Water, Sipping their Neighbors Dry, The New York Times, The Parched West Series, June 5, 2015
Photographic Museum of Humanity, America Recovered: A Survey of the ARRA. February 2, 2015
All Along the Aqueduct, BOOM - A Journal of California, 2013
Looking at the Land: 21st Century American Views, Group Show, RISD Museum of Art, 2013
Portfolio: The Invisible Stimulus, Harper's Magazine, November 2012, text by Ian Volner.
Familiar Yet Unfamiliar America, Zócalo Public Square, November 14, 2012
Assembly Required, Zócalo Public Square, July 11, 2012
Weirdest of Wonderlands, Zócalo Public Square, March 25, 2012
Chad Ress, America Recovered, Solo Show, Forward Thinking Museum, 2011.
A Light in the Desert, MIT Technology Review, October 2011
How Prepared Are We for Nuclear Disaster?, Newsweek, March 20, 2011
Chad Ress – America Recovered, Time Magazine Lightbox, June 2011
Show Me the (Stimulus) Money, Wall Street Journal Ideas Market, April 2011
Chad Ress - Professional Photographers Discuss Their Craft, The F-Stop, June 2008
Q&A: Chad Ress, Los Angeles, Feature Shoot, February 2009
Profile: Chad Ress, Lenscratch, September 2009
Education
BA Photojournalism, Western Kentucky University
MFA, University of California Santa Barbara