Christopher Phillip Verene (born 29 October 1969) is an American fine arts and documentary photographer, performance artist, and musician. He is a professor of photography at the College of Staten Island, CUNY. Verene was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 2021.
Table of Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Family
- 1.2 Chris Verene
- 1.3 De Donde Eres
- 1.4 Camera Club
- 1.5 En Este Momento
- 1.6 CHRIS VERENE - CAMERA CLUB
- 1.7 For a Decade of Sin: 11 Years of Bloodshot Records
- 1.8 Beckett/Philosophy
- 1.9 Men's Daily Multimineral Multivitamin Supplement. Vitamins A C E D B1 B2 B3 B5 B6 B12. Magnesium, Biotin, Spirulina, Zinc. Antioxidant Properties, Immune Health. 60 Capsules
- 1.10 Wild Kratts Creature Power Suit, Chris 4-6x
Biography
Verene was born in DeKalb, Illinois, and is the son of philosopher Donald Verene. He spent his teens and twenties in Atlanta, Georgia and studied art and photography at Georgia State University after completing his undergraduate degree at Emory University. Verene moved to Brooklyn in 1999. In 2000, he was included in the Whitney Biennial with his 1998 series Camera Club and the performance installation piece The Self-Esteem Salon. That same year, his monograph about his father’s hometown of Galesburg, Illinois, and about his mother’s family in Georgia and Florida, Chris Verene, was published by Twin Palms Press. The New York Times wrote a review of his self-titled book, in 2000. “Chris Verene, this year’s most attractive newcomer, is a diamond in rough whose square color photographs record his family members and friends in candid, unvarnished manner. Galesburg is where the book’s gritty grip on reality is achieved. Galesburg’s interiors are shabby, the clothes worn and the expressions of sadness in the photos suggest that things are not going well. Verene offers a commentary, which tries to be positive and compassionate. It is reminiscent of Mark Goodman’s visual diary of Millerton, N.Y.’s A Kind of History published last year without much fanfare. But the larger shadow hanging over Verene’s work belongs to Diane Arbus, which is not a bad thing”.
Three generations of Verene’s family still reside in Galesburg. The family and city are the subject of his thirty-year-long ongoing documentary project. Verene started to take pictures of his family members and friends in Galesburg at the age of 16. While having many diverse interests in music, film, and escape magic, the subject of his photographic career eventually became centered on the town of Galesburg and various events that take place within it. In 1998, The New York Times observed: “… anthropological portraits, like Chris Verene’s of a cousin at her wedding banquet in Illinois… Such portraits tell us less about individual people than about the worlds they inhabit, which is perhaps the main truth of most portraits.”
Cora Fisher, in The Brooklyn Rail, reviews Verene’s Galesburg portraits. She writes: “At no stage in their stories about separation, divorce and remarriage and birth across generationsal ties and class differences and economic changes do these seem any less than Verene’s co-authors in building their narrative.”
Verene is a well-known musician and performer, in addition to his photography work. While living in Atlanta, he co-founded musical groups D.Q.E. and The Rock*A*Teens. He is a drummer for Cordero, the band he founded with his wife Ani Cordero.
Last update 2021-08-06