LESLIE FRATKIN
450 West 17 Street APT 404
New York, NY 10011
212 477 6871
www.lesliefratkin.com
SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS
In Progress
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A
DISEASE. A diaristic investigation, using documentary photographs, family
snapshots, historical and medical research, oral histories and visual ephemera,
into the origins of Fratkin’s lifelong Multiple
Sclerosis, possibly triggered by the elements in her heavily polluted upstate New
York hometown.
Ongoing
HIDDEN CITY. A collection
of factual photographic records, made with Fratkin’s
phone/camera, of the chance moments and disparate details she encounters daily in
her hometown NYC. She
assembles these photographs into one-off handmade books.
Ongoing
LIVING WITH DISABILITY. Fratkin makes photographs and conducts
interviews with people living with mental and physical disabilities.
2000–2023
THE STREETS OF CHELSEA. Fratkin created a
two-and-a-half-year street art intervention, combining her photographs, posters
and continuous social media documentation, examining the effects of the Covid
pandemic and the civic unrest in her Chelsea NYC neighborhood.
2021
MY NEIGHBORHOOD IN COVID. Fratkin
was commissioned by The New York Foundation for the Arts, to transform a block
of Covid-proof outdoor dining booths into a large-scale solo public exhibition,
Chelsea NYC.
1996–2006
SARAJEVO SELF-PORTRAIT: THE VIEW FROM INSIDE. Fratkin created
a ten-year-long book, international exhibition and outreach project, featuring
the work and words of nine local photographers from Sarajevo, former
Yugoslavia. Their experiences during the Bosnian War in the 1990s are
documented through these images and stories. She wrote the book’s opening essay,
interviewed and made portraits of the photographers, and provided additional
photography. To commemorate the fifth
anniversary of the end of their war, she organized a talk with Richard
Holbrooke, U.S. Secretary of State and architect of the Dayton Peace Accords
that ended the war in Bosnia.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025
UNTITLED, Solo Public Art
Installation, Curated by Rodrigo Guzman-Serrano and Cee Cohen, The Macro Project
Ithaca, NY
2024
WOMEN STREET
PHOTOGRAPHERS, Curated by Gulnara Samoilovia, NYC
2023
PHOTOVOGUE FESTIVAL,
Curated by The PhotoVogue Foundation, Milan, Italy
2022
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
FESTIVAL 164, Curated by Royal Photographic Society, Bristol, UK
2021
MY NEIGHBORHOOD IN COVID, Solo
Exhibition, Commissioned by The New York Foundation for the Arts, West 15th
Street Covid-proof Outdoor Dining Booths, Chelsea Market NYC
ART IN THE TIME OF CORONA,
Curated by Dab Art, Los Angeles, CA
THE FLAG PROJECT, Curated
by The Aperture Foundation, Rockefeller Center NYC
2006
SARAJEVO SELF-PORTRAIT:
THE VIEW FROM INSIDE, Creator/Curator, Book, International Exhibition, Panels and
Related Events, National Gallery of Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2005
SARAJEVO SELF-PORTRAIT:
THE VIEW FROM INSIDE, Creator/Curator, Book, International Exhibition, Panels and
Related Events (e.g., Talks with Prize-winning Journalists Who Covered
Yugoslavia’s Wars; Talks with US Photojournalists and the project’s Sarajevan
Photographers; a talk with Richard
Holbrooke, U.S. Secretary of State and architect of the Dayton Peace Accords
that ended the war in Bosnia), Peer Gallery, Chelsea NYC
2003
WOMEN ON WAR, Curated by
Anne Zill, Center for Ethics in Action, Portland, ME
WOMEN, WAR AND THE MEDIA,
Curated by Anne Zill, Embassy of Finland, Washington, D.C.
OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET,
Curated by Philip Brookman, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
2002
WITHOUT BORDERS, Curated
by Carol McCusker, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
SARAJEVO SELF-PORTRAIT:
THE VIEW FROM INSIDE, Creator/Curator, Book, International Exhibition, Films
and Lecture Series, NGBK Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2001
SARAJEVO SELF-PORTRAIT:
THE VIEW FROM INSIDE, Creator/Curator, Book, International Exhibition, Panels
and Related Events, Museet for Fotokunst, Copenhagen,
Denmark
2000
SARAJEVO SELF-PORTRAIT:
THE VIEW FROM INSIDE, Creator/Curator, Book, International Exhibition, Panels and
Related Events, Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio
COLLECTIONS
The National Gallery of
Art, Washington D.C.
Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Washington D.C.
Museet for Fotokunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
Museum of Photographic
Arts, San Diego, California
National Gallery of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Soros Foundation / Open
Society Institute, NYC
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, COMMISSIONS, AWARDS
2023
Critics Choice
Photographers Grant and Award, Chosen by Editors from New Yorker and Time Magazines
PhotoVogue
Foundation, Forty Remarkable Photographers Grant,
International
2022
LensCulture
Foundation, Top Ten Photographers Award and Grant, London, UK
2021
New York State Foundation
for the Arts, Outdoor Exhibition Commission, NYC
2003
The Trust for Mutual
Understanding, Fellowship, NYC
Soros Foundation / Open
Society Institute, Book Publishing Grant, NYC
2001
Soros Foundation / Open
Society Institute, Grant, NYC
Human Rights Watch,
Sponsorship and Support, NYC
1999
Steven Spielberg’s Righteous
Persons Foundation, Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA
The Trust for Mutual
Understanding, Fellowship, NYC
1998
Soros Foundation / Open
Society Institute, Grant, NYC
1997
Soros Foundation / Open
Society Institute, Fellowship, NYC
PRESENTATIONS
2015
Presentation of Fratkin’s Photography, and Studio Visits with Art Students,
University of Michigan, Penny Stamps School of Art and Design, Ann Arbor,
Michigan
2011
Presentation of Fratkin’s Photography, and Talks with Art Students and
Faculty, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
2005
Book Presentation and
Panel Discussion, “Sarajevo Self-Portrait: The View from Inside, Images and
Words by Nine Photographers from Bosnia”, BuyBook
Book Store and Café, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2001
Organized a Panel
Discussion Featuring Five Photographers from
“Sarajevo Self-Portrait: The View from Inside” and Five
Renowned American Photojournalists, Aperture Gallery, NYC
Organized Panel Discussion
Featuring Seven Award-winning International Journalists Who Each Reported on
the Wars in former Yugoslavia, Bard College NYC Campus, NYC
Organized a Lecture and Q
and A Featuring Richard Holbrooke, Secretary of State and
Architect of the Dayton Peace Accords that Ended the Bosnian War, The New School,
NYC
Website and Book
Presentation, “Sarajevo Self-Portrait: The View from Inside, Images and Words
by Nine Photographers from Bosnia”, Red Square Design, NYC
“My Sarajevo Story”,
Online Interview and Photo Presentation, National Geographic, Washington D.C.
2000
Book Presentation/Discussion,
“Sarajevo Self-Portrait: The View from Inside”, Barnes & Noble Book Store,
NYC
“Sarajevo Self-Portrait:
The View from Inside”, Online Presentation, The Washington Post, Washington
D.C.
Published “Sarajevo
Self-Portrait: The View from Inside, Images and Words by Nine Photographers
from Bosnia”, Book by Leslie Fratkin, Interviews with and Portraits of the
Photographers by Leslie Fratkin, Introduction by Tom Gjelten,
Opening Essay and Additional Photography by Leslie Fratkin, Edited
by Lesley A. Martin, Distributed by PowerHouse Books,
NYC.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022
Editors’ Pick, “World
Travelers”, Published by Life Framer Magazine Online, Feature Article
“My Favorite Photograph”
and “Why I prefer Black and White Film”, Written by Leslie Fratkin, Published
by Life Framer Magazine Online, Feature Articles
“My Neighborhood in Covid”,
On-Camera Interview, Aired on Channel 1 TV NYC, about Fratkin’s
transformation of a block of Covid-proof outdoor dining booths into a
large-scale solo public exhibition, Chelsea, NYC.
2021
“The Flag Project”,
Exhibition Catalog, Published by The Aperture Foundation, Public Art
Installation
Rockefeller Center, NYC
2005
Bosnian Language Edition:
“Sarajevo Self-Portrait: The View from Inside, Images and Words by Nine Photographers from Bosnia”, Book by
Leslie Fratkin, Translation by Tamara Seric, Sarajevo, BiH
2004
“Photographing Conflict
Zones”, Article, Crimes of War Online Book
2001
Book Review, Publishers
Weekly, “Sarajevo Self-Portrait: The View from Inside, Images and Words by
Nine Photographers from
Bosnia”.
Book Review, Kirkus Reviews, “Sarajevo Self-Portrait: The View from
Inside, Images and Words by
Nine Photographers from
Bosnia”.
Article and Cover,
“Sarajevo Self-Portrait: The View from Inside”, Katalog
Magasin, Copenhagen, Denmark
1996
“A Wild Ride in
Australia’s High Country”, Written and Photographed by Leslie Fratkin, The
Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
“Trotting Through
Tuscany”, Written and Photographed by Leslie Fratkin, The Los Angeles Times, Los
Angeles, California
EDUCATION
1980
B.A. Communications, Film and Photography: The State
University of New York, Albany, New York
1980 – Present
Learning by doing: New
York City, Australia, Netherlands, Former Yugoslavia, etc.