The advent of social media over the last two decades has invigorated my pursuit. I am a devotee of Instagram (georgeslade.photo) and have been publishing on Substack since early 2025. I am drawn to photographic subjects that lie within a body’s length from myself. The last day of 2023 I suffered a traumatic brain injury while skiing. I continue to experience double vision, headaches, and incapacitating exhaustion. I have ceased driving, which enhances my pedestrian awareness. My photographs since the accident fascinate me; they feel like collages assembling in my head as I encounter the passing world. In fact, I have delved deeply into the practice of collage, using my own photographs and handmade paper by the artist Amanda Degener.
The Latin expression “ars longa, vita brevis” compels and functions as a mantra for me. What elements of our art will endure and outlast our lives?
Selected Resume
Photography – Exhibitions
- 2024 – Roots and Roofs: A Visual Exploration of Home : McCorvey Health and Wellness Center, Minneapolis
- 2023 – REJECTED : Argyle Zebra Gallery, St. Paul
- 2023 – Art on Caregiving, Aging, Death and Dying : ArtReach St. Croix, Stillwater MN
Books – Personal
- 2023 – Looking Homeward : personal insights on archival photographs
- 2022 – Lewiston 1980 : remembering a concert experience in Maine
- 2021 – My Father’s Shirts : photographs and text about my father and Alzheimer’s
Books – Contributor
- 2024 – Works in Progress 2 : Northside Artspace Lofts exh. cat. Editor, essayist
- 2022 – Saint Paul Almanac vol. 13: A Path to Each Other : “Dad’s Grip” anecdotes
- 2021 – PROXIMITIES art education activism by Linda Brooks : Editor, essayist
- 2000–2024 – Essayist for monographs by over one dozen photographers
Grants & Recognition
- 2023 – Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Arts Impact for Individuals Award
- 2022 – Feature about My Father’s Shirts in Lenscratch online magazine
- 2021 – Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant Recipient
- 2019 – Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Next Step Grant Recipient
- 2009 – Future Leadership Fellow, National Arts Strategies
- 2007 – Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program
Related Experience
- 2022–present – Host, Photobook Banter, live conversations with photographic bookmakers
- 2015–present – Founder & Director, TC Photo, non-profit organization connecting photographers
- 2003–2008 – Artistic Director, Minnesota Center for Photography
- 1998–2008 – Program Director, McKnight Foundation Artists Fellowships for Photographers
- 1989–present – Freelance writer, photography historian, curator, lecturer, consultant
Education
- 2014 – MA, Organizational Leadership, St. Catherine University, Saint Paul, MN (Ethics & Leadership concentration, Strategic Management Certificate)
- 2013 – Inductee into Delta Phi Lambda Writing Society
- 1983 – BA, American Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT (Photography in American Culture concentration)