Ann Jastrab, MFA, is the Executive Director at the Center for Photographic Art (CPA) in Carmel, California. CPA strives to advance photography through education, exhibition and publication. These regional traditions—including mastery of craft, the concept of mentorship, and dedication to the photographic arts—evolved out of CPA’s predecessor, the renowned Friends of Photography established in 1967. While respecting these West Coast traditions, CPA is also at the vanguard of the future of photographic imagery.

Before coming onboard at CPA, Ann worked as the gallery director at RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco for 10 years until their closure in 2017. While being a champion of artists, she created a thriving artist-in-residence program at RayKo where multiple residents received Guggenheim Fellowships. Ann was also the gallery manager at Scott Nichols Gallery in San Francisco where she incorporated contemporary artists with the legends photography.

During her tenure at the Center for Photographic Art, Ann has created important artist grant and scholarship programs to support creatives and students. She has also taken the organization from a regional arts center to one with members on 6 continents. She most recently launched a photography festival called PhotoCarmel that celebrates the medium on the central coast of California. Ann is a juror and reviewer for numerous organizations and institutions. She also taught for more than a decade at the Maine Photographic Workshops (now Maine Media Workshops) in Rockport, Maine.

Nelson Chan, (Associate Professor of Photography, Rhode Island School of Design) was born in New Jersey to immigrant parents from Hong Kong and Taiwan and has spent most of his life between the US and Hong Kong (colonial and post-Handover eras). Having grown up on two continents with unique and shifting cultures, this immigrant experience has influenced the majority of his work.

Nelson is a graduate of RISD, where he received his BFA in Photography, and a graduate of the University of Hartford, Hartford Art School, where he received his MFA. He has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions such as the Museum of Chinese in America, New York, NY; Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA; The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA; Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; and 798 Space, Beijing, China. His books are collected in the institutional libraries of the MET, the Guggenheim, SFMOMA, the Whitney Museum, the Harry Ransom Center, and MoMA, among others.

Along with his photographic work, book publishing is another focus of his studio practice. Nelson is co-founder of TIS books, an independent publisher that concentrates on limited-edition photobooks. He was production manager at the Aperture Foundation from 2016–19, and prior to his appointment at RISD, was an associate professor of photography at the California College of the Arts. 

Nathan Lomas is a photographer, artist, and educator living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. He holds an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BFA from the College for Creative Studies. He is an instructor, gallery coordinator, and production manager at The Image Flow Photography Center in San Anselmo, and has taught at the Academy of Art University San Francisco. He is also the owner of Heritage Tintype Parlor, a portrait studio specializing in wet plate collodion photography.

Nathan developed the concept for Queer Conscience out of a desire to create more opportunities for queer photographers and artists to share their work. He is currently pursuing the creation of an LGBTQ+ artist residency program that hopes to provide mental health resources to its residents in addition to supporting their creative work and fostering connections to the broader art world.

The Image Flow Staff aims to celebrate photography in all its forms and to provide a platform for photographers of all levels to create work, exchange ideas, and to innovate the medium of photography. Our staff and instructors are deeply engaged with photographic practice in their daily lives and bring that same dedication to our space each day. We remain committed to making photography accessible to the community by providing public exhibitions, free lectures, workshops, and imaging services.

Today, our workshops and services continue to be in support of The Image Flow founder‘s mantra – “It’s not a photograph until it’s a print” – driving toward photography in print form. We possess the tools and expertise needed to help bring your vision to life.