Biography
Born and raised in Chicago, Colleen Plumb worked as a graphic designer
for several years before pursuing a degree in photography. She holds
an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (1999), where she
is currently an adjunct faculty member in the photography department.
Plumb's work is in several collections, including the Museum of Contemporary
Photography, Chicago, IL; Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA; Milwaukee
Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; and Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona,
FL. Her photographs are part of the Midwest Photographers Project at
the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the Chicago Project at Catherine
Edelman Gallery, and are featured online with Photo-Eye's Photographer's
Showcase. Plumb's work has been widely published and exhibited. Plumb
is represented by Jen Bekman Gallery, New York, and van Straaten Gallery,
Denver, Colorado.
Statement
"More than a dozen years ago, when I began grad school, I was fantastically
and truly lost. I had quit my design job and was suddenly free from
my cubicle and out making pictures. I found myself riding the train
to class at disorienting times, immersed in the library for hours, and
walking my dog Ethel all the time - all with camera in hand. In search
of a 'project' (what pressure), I kept photographing Ethel, and other
dogs and animals. Lots of fake plants and animals kept creeping into
my pictures too. I believe my ongoing project Animals Are Outside Today
found me, my job was to notice its arrival. Now all I can think about
is how and where animals are woven through the fabric of culture. I
continue to find new threads: lately I am thinking about tanneries.
The history in tanning leather is amazing and totally gross. I love
the concept of how beautiful things can get stretched so far from their
origin or source. I am thinking about elephants a lot this way too:
how odd it really is to be able to actually see an elephant in a place
like say, St. Louis. Or Chicago."