Graham MacIndoe BIO
Born in Scotland, Graham MacIndoe studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art and received a master's degree in photography from the Royal College of Art in London. He is an associate professor of photography at Parsons School of Design in New York City and has worked as a photographer for more than 20 years. His documentary and portrait photography focuses on a range of social justice issues, including drug policy and criminal justice reform, as well as music and running—a lifelong passion he continues today.
Graham has published and exhibited his work widely, including solo exhibitions at the National Arts Club in New York City in 2021, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati in 2018, and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2017. In 2020 his photographs were included in group shows at the International Center of Photography in NYC and The Museum of the City of New York. He recently published “Light Years,” a book of photographs taken over 20 years of the Grammy award-winning band The National. In 2017 the Scottish National Portrait Gallery acquired and exhibited a series of photographs he took during a period of addiction, accompanied by text and multimedia describing his trajectory from addiction to recovery. The Guardian called that show, Coming Clean, one of five “best UK exhibitions” to see when it opened.
Graham and his wife Susan Stellin have collaborated on many projects combining text and photography, working with participants to challenge stereotypes and address complex issues. Their current project “Preventing Overdose Deaths: How to Save and Uplift Lives” is on view in Brooklyn Bridge Park as part of the 2021 Photoville Festival. In 2019, they co-curated the exhibition Beyond Addiction: Reframing Recovery, which debuted in New York City in 2019 and traveled to Rochester NY in 2020. In 2014, they were awarded a fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation for their project American Exile, about families divided by deportation, which was exhibited in New York and Sydney. Graham and Susan are also the authors of a dual memoir, Chancers, about navigating addiction, incarceration, and recovery, which was published by Random House in 2016.
Graham has spoken at many events, including talks at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, TEDx Stanford, Aperture, The New School, the University of Michigan, and Columbia University. He has been interviewed by a wide range of print, television, and radio outlets, and his photographs have been published and written about in many newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Guardian Weekend Magazine, New York, The Financial Times Magazine, Harpers, Rolling Stone, I.D., and Vice. His work is in the collections of The Scottish National Galleries, The International Center of Photography, The New York Public Library, The British Council, The V&A Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts Florida, The British Museum of Film and Television, and various private collections.