"Shannon Ebner (b. 1971) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. At its center, Ebner’s practice examines the function of language through the lens of photography. By dealing with language of a poetic, political, commercial, or symbolic nature, she explores the limits and gray areas of communication and representation. Ebner’s work shares a strong affinity with a history of conceptual art that began in the 1960s, as she enacts a deconstruction of language to reveal its dogmatic underpinnings and varying degrees of legibility. However, through her critique of the ideologically-charged language of freedom and democracy since 9/11 or of the language of contemporary advertising, for example, Ebner’s work is situated firmly in the present."

"Melanie Willhide is an artist, designer, curator, and educator. She worked for fifteen years at the university level as a Photography Department Chair building strategic partnerships, developing programs, and coordinating fundraising events. Additionally, Melanie worked as Production Manager for several world-recognized artists on high profile large scale fine-arts projects, as well as commissions for popular media and multi-national corporations including Adobe and Post-Hill Press. She is committed to creative experimentation, sustainability, equity, and diversity. Melanie received her MFA from Yale University School of Art and a BFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design. In her artistic practice she has worked to challenge conventional notions of the photograph and has exhibited throughout the United States for nearly two decades. Her work has been reviewed and featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Blind Spot, Art in America, Modern Painters and many other publications. She is represented in Los Angeles by Von Lintel Gallery and Elizabeth Houston Gallery in New York City. Her work is included in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Yale University’s Davenport Collection, and the George Eastman Museum."

"BRIAN “B+” CROSS is one of the most promi­nent music photographers working today. He has photographed many album covers for artists such as Damian Marley, David Axelrod, DJ Shadow, Fly­ing Lotus, Eazy-E, J Dilla, Jurassic 5, Rza, Company Flow, Madlib, Dilated Peoples, Mos Def, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington and Q-Tip. Cross was the director of pho­tography for the Academy Award–nominated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, and he has made several feature-length music films (Keepintime, Brasilintime and Timeless) and many music videos. B+ is co-founder of the renowned production house Mochilla with Eric Coleman. Cross was the photo editor of the music magazine Wax Poetics from 2004 to 2010, and Rappages from 1993 to 1998. Cross’s 1993 book It’s Not About a Salary: Rap Race and Resistance, was one of the first books to document the burgeoning West Coast hip hop scene. Cross is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego, lives in Los Angeles and his new book, Ghostnotes: Music of the Unplayed came out on the University of Texas Press in early December of 2017.

"David Black is an American photographer and director noted for his work with musicians such as Daft Punk, Cat Power and Kim Gordon."

'“Soul. R&B. Funk. Photographs 1972-1982,” released this fall, features nearly 300 images chronicling the performers and the fans from the era. Talamon’s book highlights not only the icons — including Franklin, Wonder, Summer and the Jackson 5 — but also showcases influential acts that didn’t find the same mainstream success, such as the Stylistics or the Dramatics. Also documented are cultural touchstones such as Don Cornelius’ music and dance TV program “Soul Train.” - Excerpt from LA Times article by Makeda Easter. '

"Alex Prager is an American photographer and film maker. In her elaborately conceived staged photographs, Prager openly references the aesthetics of mid-twentieth century American cinema and photography. Each of her lush colour images resembles a film still – entirely constructed and packed with emotion and human melodrama. In her film work she extends on her photographic practice, moving from the directorial mode in photography to directing an elaborately constructed film. Both aspects of her practice pair the banal and fantastic, the everyday and the theatrical, real life and cinematic representation in lush, richly coloured tableaux ."