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Salgu Wissmath is a nonbinary Korean American photographer from Sacramento, CA. They are currently a Hearst Photo Fellow at the San Antonio Express-News, and previously worked at The San Francisco Chronicle. They are dedicated to decolonizing visual storytelling by engaging in ethical storytelling by and for people of color and the queer community. Their personal work explores the intersections of mental health, queer identity, and faith from a conceptual documentary approach. Salgu studied at U.C. Berkeley and Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication. Previously they interned at The Kodiak Daily Mirror, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and The Courier Journal. Their work has been published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, High Country News, Cal Matters, among others. Their photography has been exhibited in Sacramento, CA, Berkeley, CA, New York, Los Angeles, Athens, OH, and Seoul, South Korea. Salgu was recognized as AAJA’s 2022 Emerging Journalist of the Year and received the 2023 Curve Award for Emerging Journalists. They are a 2022 Gwen Ifill Fellow, 2021 California Arts Council Emerging Artist Fellow, and 2017 Women Photograph Mentee, as well as an alumnus of the Chips Quinn Scholar Program, AAJA Voices, Eddie Adams Workshop XXXI, and NLGJA’s Connect Student Journalism Project. Salgu is the Communications Director for Diversify Photo, a core team member with Ethical Narrative, and a member of AAJA, NLGJA, TJA, NPPA, Women Photograph, Quee ... view more »
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MORE ABOUT THIS ARTIST
Artist Style: Visual Art: Conceptual, Documentary, Portraiture, Sacred/Liturgical Art
Artist Medium: Photography
Artist Statement of Work
Tell us about your work (style, approach, philosophy, subject and/or theme):
I am dedicated to decolonizing visual storytelling by engaging in ethical storytelling by and for people of color and the queer community. My personal work explores the intersections of mental health, queer identity, and faith from a conceptual documentary approach. My creative approach is a conceptual documentary style of photography. My work sits on the intersection of documentary and fine art. Some projects are traditional documentary-style photo essays, such as “Same Hall” about residents of gender neutral housing dorms at Ohio University. Other projects, like “Documenting Dysphoria,” are portraiture, but in a style that captures the mood or emotion of an individual. This project is a series of illustrative portraits exploring what gender dysphoria feels like. My most recent project, “Divine Identity,” takes a more fine art approach. My medium is digital photography and this project uses editing effects in photoshop to transform the portraits of queer folks of faith into religious icons.
