Laura Camden
Laura L Camden is a professor at Northern Arizona University (NAU), where she teaches courses in documentary photography. Her creative and research interests focus on international photojournalism, American studies ethnography, and editorial/documentary photography. She is the author of the 2006 photographic book Mennonites in Texas: The Quiet in the Land (Texas A&M University Press), and her photographic archive is housed at The University of Texas at Austin’s Briscoe Center for American History. She has been an award-winning professional photojournalist for the past 30 years, covering such events as the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush for Reuters News Pictures in Washington, DC. and Austin, Texas. Before coming to NAU in 2007, she taught at the University of Montana as a visiting professor (2000-1) and The University of Texas at Austin as an adjunct professor (2001-2005).
Artist Statement
My personal goal as an educator is to foster in my students the discovery of their own abilities to discover, the understanding that they choose who they become, the desire to explore and affirm diverse ways of knowing and doing, and the compulsion to responsibly and substantively contribute to society through their creative lifework.
It has been stated that photography is the only “language” understood in all parts of the world, and bridging all nations and cultures, it links the family of man. My creative scholarship seeks the authenticity of the human spirit through photography and writing. My research and creative interests include documentary photography of subcultures, of people and places lesser known.
I have worked on various documentary projects with my photography students including the Native American culture in Montana and Arizona, Cajun culture in rural Louisiana and internationally in Cuba, India, Spain and Australia.
It has been stated that photography is the only “language” understood in all parts of the world, and bridging all nations and cultures, it links the family of man. My creative scholarship seeks the authenticity of the human spirit through photography and writing. My research and creative interests include documentary photography of subcultures, of people and places lesser known.
I have worked on various documentary projects with my photography students including the Native American culture in Montana and Arizona, Cajun culture in rural Louisiana and internationally in Cuba, India, Spain and Australia.
