Working on “Up Against the Wall,” at Playas de Tijuana. October 2014. Image by Amanda Hankerson

Flo is a U.S.-born queer and non-binary documentary visual storyteller focused on social justice issues. Working from the Jewish principle of Tikkun Olam (to be a part of repairing the world), Flo has participated in and photographed activist and liberation movements on Turtle Island and in Palestine, Bahrain, Serbia and Ukraine, also having produced long form projects on homelessness across the United States and on borders as they become physical and evolve.

Flo's "Up Against the Wall," a visual and comparative investigation of global borders, was featured in the Wall Street Journal, and named one of the best photographic essays of 2015 by Slate. In 2020, Flo’s COVID-19 related work, “My New Normal,” was featured on In Sight at the Washington Post.

In 2018, Flo was a Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellow, producing “Dwelling,” a visual exploration on the architecture of homelessness in Los Angeles, CA and “Being Barbara,” a multimedia piece made in collaboration with a woman living on the streets of Times Square, NY. In 2020, Flo completed the Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism program at the International Center of Photography and was a student at the Eddie Adams Workshop XXXIII.

Flo’s work has been shown at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ (2019), Sacramento State Library Gallery (2017), El Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, CA (2017), the Mizna + Radius of American Arab Writers (RAWI) Conference (2016) and Vine Arts Center (2011) in Minneapolis, MN, and Treeo Gallery in Phoenix, AZ (2016).

Lens-Based Projects:

Battle of the Greasy Grass Ride (2022)
The annual Battle of the Greasy Grass Ride (aka Battle of Little BigHorn) commemorates the 1876 battle in which combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho defeated Custer and the U.S.'s 7th Cavalry. Multi Media.

Dakota 38 +2 Wokiksuye (2021)
An annual 16 day, 330 mile Indigenous Ride in prayer and remembrance of the Dakota men hung the day after Christmas 1862 at the orders of Abraham Lincoln.
Multi Media.

Stop Line 3 (2021)
An Indigenous- and Matriarchal-led ceremony and protest along the route of the Enbridge Inc. Line 3 oil pipeline and through Indigenous treaty land. This series also includes daily life of the protest camps. Multi Media.

My New Normal (2020)
A photographic exploration of the emotional and psychological impacts at the start of COVID-19 in New York City.
Published July 8, 2020 on In Sight | The Washington Post

Dwelling (2016-2018)
A visual exploration on the architecture of homelessness in Los Angeles, CA.
Produced as a Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellow

Being Barbara (2018)
A multi-media piece highlighting the logistical challenges of living unsheltered in Times Square, NYC.
Produced as a Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellow

Up Against the Wall (2002-ongoing)
A pictorial and comparative investigation of global borders and physical barriers using the southern U.S. border, Melilla, Spain and Israel as focus.
Published 2015 & 2016 in the Wall Street Journal, Slate, PetaPixel

Witness Bahrain (2012)
An international witnessing and reporting project initiated by grassroots Bahraini activists in the lead up to their one year commemoration of the Arab Spring movement.

Welcome to Palestine (2002-2008)
A Jewish outsider’s invited glimpse into daily Palestinian life during the Second Intifada.

Published Features:

2020
Feature, In Sight | Washington Post, My New Normal
Feature, Fotodemic, My New Normal

2018
“The Latin East,” a North American Congress in Latin America (NACLA) special collaboration with Middle East Research and Information Project and Jadaliyya
(Spring V.50, No. 1)

2016
Feature, Peta Pixel, Up Against the Wall
Feature, Slate, “One of the Five Best Photo Essays of 2015,” Up Against the Wall

2015
Feature and Interview, Slate, Up Against the Wall
Feature and Interview, Wall Street Journal, Up Against the Wall

Fellowships:

2020 Eddie Adams Workshop XXXIII
2020 International Center of Photography Director’s Fellow
2018 Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellow

Employment:

2020-22 Visuals Editor; Homeless Network NewZ; zAmya Theater Project, Minneapolis, MN
2016 Teaching Artist; Digital Promotoras, Las Fotos Project, Los Angeles, CA
2014-16 Special Projects Coordinator; Mexicayotl Academy, Nogales, AZ
2008-14 Staff Photographer/Archivist; Mizna, a Forum for Arab American Arts, St. Paul, MN
2007 Founder & Teaching Artist; Youth Photo Project, Waite House, Minneapolis, MN
2002-5 Middle East Correspondent; Pulse of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN

Photographic Exhibitions:

Solo
Up Against the Wall
2017 Centro Cultural de la Raza, San Diego, CA
2017 Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA
2016 Fresno Arts Council, Fresno, CA
2016 Treeo Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
2016 Mizna + Radius of Arab Writers (RAWI), Minneapolis, MN
2011 Vine Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN

Welcome to Palestine
2006 Art of This Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

Group
2019 Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ; #WIP Two: Place and Space
2017 Derfner Judaica Museum, Riverside, NY
2015 University of Arizona, Center for Middle East Studies
2014 Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA; Art Forces' "Resurgence"