DEBBIE RASIEL

bio

Debbie Rasiel is a documentary and project based photographer in New York City. In her 2016 exhibition at Soho20, The Vacationers, Debbie continued to explore her fascination with the culture of tourism. She has been developing this series in Florida, and exhibiting in Miami. Debbie has spent the majority of her professional life working for NGO’s, Universities, and collaborating on personal projects. In 2008, she traveled to South Africa with a team from the Universities of Johannesburg and Michigan to document a poverty relief program. Her photographs are featured in Women on Purpose, a book published by the University of Johannesburg with funding from the Ford Foundation. For Debbie’s current project, Picturing Autism, she has traveled to six countries in the past five years and had two large-scale exhibitions—one in Chelsea, and another in Hanoi, Vietnam, through a collaboration with CCIHP, a Vietnamese public health organization. With CCIHP Picturing Autism has evolved into another collaboration, receiving the International Engagement Award from the Wellcome Trust. Debbie has also written about and curated exhibitions for other artists, including collaborating on a book and an exhibit on Dorothea Lange which traveled to the Steinbeck Center for its centennial. She received a BFA from the University of Florida, an MA from Tufts University, and has completed coursework toward a PhD at the City University of New York, with a concentration in photography and contemporary criticism. Her photographs are included in many collections, both private and public, including Rutgers University, the University of Johannesburg, and the Center for Creative Initiatives, Hanoi.

statement

“As a stamp collector collects stamps, I collect moments in time–moments that are easily missed, but when frozen by the release of a camera’s shutter become visual records worthy of consideration. Rather than pursue dramatic subjects, I look for mundane objects and familiar landscapes. From a different angle, at a different time of day, and in a different setting the ordinary can become extraordinary.

I learned to photograph in the late seventies using a 35mm camera and shot with film until the early 2000s. Since 2007 I’ve worked exclusively with a digital camera. Although my time in the dark room has been replaced by time spent on the computer, I haven’t lost my passion for the beauty of a well-executed print. For me, “the web” will never replace the tactile quality of beautiful paper and the immediacy of holding an image in my hands.” — Debbie Rasiel

work