Bobby Abrahamson is a documentary photographer, filmmaker and media educator with more than 20 years experience teaching photography and producing art. Since moving to Portland, Oregon in 2005, he has taught as an adjunct instructor at numerous local schools and institutions, including current positions at Pacific Northwest College of Art, University of Portland, Mount Hood Community College, Clark College, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland Art Museum, Newspace Center for Photography, Caldera and Saturday Academy. Other positions in Portland include teaching photography and media literacy to at-risk teenagers in Portland area middle schools through Media, Arts and Technology Institute, teaching documentary photography to low-income teens with The Pangaea Project, and teaching black and white photography to homeless and transitional youth at P:EAR.
Before moving to Portland Bobby founded and directed the Our Voices project in Atlanta, Georgia, an ongoing program that works in partnership with the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless to empower homeless adults by teaching them photography (2004-05). Students’ work from this project was presented in the exhibition Shifting Perspectives: Our Voices Photography Project at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (Atlanta, 2005). His other college level teaching experience includes serving as an adjunct instructor of photojournalism at the University of Georgia for three semesters (two full-time; 2000-01), teaching a course in Ethics of Photojournalism at the International Center of Photography in New York (2004), and leading a one-month workshop in documentary photography at Studio Sepia, in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia (2004).
Abrahamson’s work as an artist and educator has been presented in ten solo shows and numerous group exhibitions and collaborations in the United States and Europe. Recent solo shows include Rabbit at Newspace Center for Photography (Portland, 2008), Street Muggings at Camerawork Gallery (Portland, 2007) and Recent Composites at Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, 2007). He has produced three self-published photography books including One Summer Across America (Belgrade, 2005), which includes an afterword by acclaimed American photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank. Recent group shows include The Shape of Time at The Oregon Jewish Musuem (Portland, 2009-10), MOCA GA Collects:The Photographic Image at Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia (Atlanta, 2009), Inside Out at the University of Portland (Portland, 2007), As they see it: Georgia Photographers at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (Atlanta, 2005), The Yugoslav Biennial of Young Artists (Serbia and Montenegro, 2004), and the Georgia International Festival of Art in Tbilisi (Republic of Georgia, 2004). His film and video credits include: One Summer Across America (2003), Little Boy Bobby (1999), Dreams and Despair (1998), and New York (1995). Bobby’s creative work extends beyond photography and film, having worked collaboratively with the theatrical company Synchronicity Performance Group in Atlanta, designing the set for their production of Six Characters in Search of an Author (2000), and creating still and video projections for their production of Marisol (1998).
Abrahamson’s work as a professional photographer includes shooting for TIME, Fortune, US News & World Report, The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and the advertising firm Wieden & Kennedy. He is represented by the photo agency Black Star. In 2005 Bobby worked as a personal assistant to Robert Frank. He has a Master of Arts degree in Media Studies from New School University, with a focus on documentary history, theory and criticism; media literacy education; and digital media production.
I love this approach, this way of seeing.