After receiving his B.F.A. from University of Louisville in 2005, James Robert Southard worked in Louisville for three years as a photojournalist. In 2008 he left for Pittsburgh to begin graduate school in Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating in 2011 he was invited to international exhibitions such as the Moscow Biennale for Young Art, Hel’Pitts’Sinki’Burgh in Finland, Camaguey Cuba’s 5th International Video Art Fest, and he has participated in the Internet Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale in Venice Italy.
Southard’s work has addressed a broad range of subjects including cultural identity, human reactions to cinematography used in Film Noir and Science Fiction films, as well as habitual surveying. In the winter and spring of 2012, he continued his series Tooth and Nail with the collaboration of the city of Seoul, Korea at Seoul Art Space Geumcheon. Soon after he took his project to Skowhegan School of Painting in Maine and to Yaddo Retreat in Saratoga Springs, NY. While at MacDowell he began a long-term drawing project depicting important memories and moments from his life. The end result will be a book of these images.
Southard taught photography at University of Louisville, Kentucky School of Art, and fine arts at Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently teaching photography at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
