Katie Jett Walls is documentary photographer, creating visual stories for families in the Washington DC area, as well shooting documentary projects that give voice to those in marginalized communities and witness to the human experience. In addition to running a successful family photography business for 13 years, Katie traveled to Puerto Rico in 2018 to document communities hardest hit by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and completed a long-term project following an HIV+ veteran in Queens, NY in 2018-19. In 2019 Katie began a long term exploration of the Black Belt region of the US South which is currently on-going.
Katie’s work has crossed the boundary between documentary and fine art, when in 2018 she was selected to exhibit her family documentary work in a three-person show at Glen Echo Photoworks. She also was awarded third place in the 2018 International Art Through the Lens exhibition and competition. Her personal documentary work has also been exhibited in juried group shows.
Katie is the founder and editor of Confluence Magazine, which launched in September 2018, to highlight the documentary projects of emerging photo storytellers and connect them with gatekeepers in media and publishing.
Katie is a mom to a precocious second grader and wife to a precocious computer nerd. She began her photography journey when she inherited her grandfather’s old Minolta SRT201 film camera when she was 25, ran away to photography school when she was 26, and took her first paying client when she was 27. She has never looked back.
CV
2021 “Artist Profile: Águeda Sanfiz”, article contributed to Photo Cereal Magazine
2020 “What I See: What taking care of each other looks like in a pandemic”, written and photo edited by me, published on evoke.org by Melinda Gates
2020 “Picture (Im)Perfect” group exhibit; Curator: Merieke van der Krabben, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts
2020 “Picture (Im)Perfect” exhibition companion book, “Forward” written by me
2019 Panelist, “Crafting Meaningful Personal Projects”, Focus on the Story Festival, Washington DC
2019 “Capturing light: Current Photographic Processes”, group exhibit, Juror: Nate Larson, BlackRock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD
2019 “Audacity of Hope”, group exhibit, Juror: Paula Tognarelli, Garner Center at the New England School of Photography, Waltham, MA
2019 Artist in Residence at Expose Art House, Montgomery, AL
2019 “WHAT I SEE: 9 PHOTOGRAPHERS ON WHAT FORWARD PROGRESS LOOKS LIKE” published on evoke.org by Melinda Gates
2018 “The Miraculous in the Mundane”, exhibit at Glen Echo Photoworks, Glen Echo, MD
2018 Group exhibition, Art Through the Lens, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah KY
2018 3rd Place Winner, 2018 Art Through the Lens International Competition
2017 Main Street Takoma Art Hop participant, “District in the Time of Choleric”, Takoma Park, MD
2017 Group Exhibition at Hera Hub Co-working Space, Washington DC
Education:
2019 Missouri Photo Workshop 71
2019 Year-long one-on-one mentorship with photographer Lesly Deschler Canossi, faculty International Center for Photography, NYC
2018 Year-long group mentorship/workshop with photographer Kirsten Lewis
2017 “Finding Your Photographic Voice”, NYC workshop with Eric Kim
2004 Oklahoma School of Photography, certificate of completion with merit
Activities:
2019 Storytellers Photoconference, Master of Ceremonies, Miami Beach, FL
2018 – present Member of Board of Directors for Focus on the Story, www.focusonthestory.org
2018 – present Editor/Founder of Confluence Magazine, www.confluencemag.com
2004 – present owner of Katie Jett Walls Photography, commercial and family photography in Washington DC