Gillian Laub (b. 1975) is a photographer born in Chappaqua New York. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in comparative literature before studying photography at the International Center of Photography, New York where her love of storytelling and family narratives began. She was selected for the World Press Photo’s Joop Swart Masterclass in 2003 and as the winner of Nikon’s Storyteller Award for her work in the Middle East. With the support of the Jerome Foundation, Laub’s first monograph Testimony was published by Aperture in 2007 to critical acclaim. This body of work is comprised of portraits and testimonies from Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians all directly and indirectly affected by the complicated geopolitical context in which they live.
David Rieff says of this work, “The bravery of the photos in this series is that they show what even funerals do not show: the true horror of war and terrorism. They do so in a way that does not seek to turn the young people portrayed into types or leech them of their beliefs or prejudices -- of their human specificity, in other words. To consider them is to be reminded not just of human cruelty and human stupidity but also of human tenacity. I can't go on, I'll go on. The words are Samuel Beckett's, but the wisdom they reflect is the common wisdom of everyone portrayed here, whatever else divides them.”
In 2007, Laub was awarded Aperture’s Emerging Artist Award. Gillian Laub has received recognition for her multimedia work. “Take Care”, won first place in FotoWeekDC 2011, and was a Webby honoree. She was recently a finalist for The Arnold Newman Prize for her multimedia piece “Becoming Nikki” – a project about a transgender youth, who transitioned from male to female at the age of 10 with the support of her family. She was also rewarded the Aaron Siskind Fellowship for 2015. Laub contributes regularly to The New York Times Magazine, TIME Magazine, among many other publications and commissions. Her first feature documentary film, titled “SOUTHERN RITES”, will be premiering on HBO in May 2015.
