Margaret Stratton

Margaret Stratton's photographs document the ephemeral remains that define personal and cultural histories. Her work contemplates memories and events as relics that trace the transmission of violence, loss and absence. Her work consists of excerpts of evidence from relationships known and unknown and intuitive and timeless images that commemorate interior spaces. Through this process she has created a diverse body of work for which she has been awarded five National Endowment for the Arts Awards in three categories: Photography, Installation and New Genre. Other awards include a Seattle Arts Commission "Public Works" Award, Best New Film/Video of 1995 from the Canadian Film Board, and Directors Award from The Black Maria Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Exhibited nationally and internationally, Stratton’s work has been shown at: Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY; The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; The Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C; The Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, MA; The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; The American Museum of Art in Minneapolis, MN: The Berlin Film Festival, Berlin; Camerawork, San Francisco, CA, and The Henry Gallery, Seattle, WA.

Her collections include Ellis Island Museum, Ellis Island, New York; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; George Eastman House, International Center for Photography and Film; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Chicago Art Institute; TIAA/CREF; New York Historical Society, The Library of Congress, Washington D.C.: London Video Archive, England; Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle, Washington, and Collection Dancing Bear: WM Hunt, New York.

Her publications include: Resurrecting the Neapolitan Cult of the Skull, Center for American Places, University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL, Here Is New York: A Democracy of Photography, 2002, Harper’s Magazine, 2001, Contact Sheet #110, Detained In Purgatory, Light Work, Syracuse NY, 2000, Lesbian Art In America, Rizzoli Press, 2000, Art, Document, Market, Science: Photography’s Multiple Roles, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, 1998, and Reframings: New Feminist Photographies, Temple University Press, 1996.