About

Cynthia Bittenfield pursues projects that shed light on the human cost of war whether dealing with the issue of post-traumatic stress, revisiting battlefields and sites of atrocity, or documenting life on the home front. The discovery of her father’s wartime scrapbook after he died started her in this new direction. The photo album and family archive has also figured prominently in her latest portrait project, an homage to her mother’s life and death.

She has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Recently, her work was featured in The Distance Between You and Me, Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany, War and Peace, Darkroom Gallery, Essex Junction, VT. She assisted Krzysztof Wodiczko on his Veteran's Flame Project, which was a part of Creative Time’s Plot 9, on Governor's Island, NY and presented at the 23rd Annual National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, Visions of War: the arts represent conflict, at the School of Visual Arts, NY. Bittenfield has attended residencies at the Kala Arts Center in Berkeley, the Vermont Studio Center, Picture Berlin, and the Wassaic Project in New York. She was awarded a grant from the Puffin Foundation and the School of Visual Arts, New York, where she received her MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media. Her website is: www.cynthiabittenfield.com. She lives and works in New York City and is currently on the board of Baxter St/Camera Club of New York.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

(Postponed due to COVID-19) Keep Your Chin Up, Mishkan Shalom, Philadelphia, PA

2018 World War II Revisited, The Pit-Loft, New York, NY

2008 World War II Revisited, Shoreline Community College, Seattle, WA

2007 World War II Revisited, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA

2005 Normandy Revisited, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA

2004 Paris to Puyallup, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS/SCREENINGS

2020 Women in the Arts, Rockland Community College, Rockland, NY

2019 Photography Now 2019: The Searchers, Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York

2019 Gallery 110, Group Show, Seattle, Wa

2019 Interiors to Being Festival, In Search if the Miraculous: Super-Sized Visions: Hitler’s Germania, artists walking tour and lecture, Picture Berlin, Berlin, Germany

2019 Großkreisentfernung (Great Circle Distance) Mail-Art Exhibition, Picture Berlin, Berlin, Germany

2019 Julia Margaret Cameron Gala Awards and Exhibition, Barcelona, Spain, Honorable Mention

2019 Alternative Processes and Integrated Media, Texas Photographic Society 

2018 Summer Show, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY

2018 Small Works, Baruch College, New York, NY

2017 Winter Solstice Exhibition, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA

2017 Found and Lost, Void Gallery, Athens, Greece

2016 37th Annual Parfitt Juried Photography Show, Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery, Portsmouth NH

2016 Moscow International Foto Awards: Honorable Mention for 2 Projects: House of 1000 Eyes and Keep Your Chin Up

2016 SnappedAway: Keep Your Chin Up

2015 Der Abstand Zwischen Dir und Mi (The Distance Between You and Me), Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany

2015 War and Peace, Darkroom Gallery, Essex Junction, VT

2015 Openhaus, Z/KU, Berlin Germany

2015 FERNWEH, Tete, Berlin, Germany

2015 The Homecoming Project, PhotoVille, Hamburg Triennial, Hamburg, Germany

2015 Made at Reis Studios, Long Island City, NY

2014 The Homecoming Project, PhotoVille, New York, NY

2014 20th Juried Online Exhibition, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA

2014 The Homecoming Project, Fovea Gallery, Beacon, NY

2014 The Wassaic Project Summer Exhibition, Wassaic , NY

2012 A Path Home: Visualizing Trauma and Healing, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ

2012 The End of War, Northlight Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

2012 The Homecoming Project, Austin, TX

2012 PhotoPlace Open 2012, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT

2012 Wall Street to Main Street, Masters on Main Street, Catskill, NY

2011 29th Annual Juried Membership Exhibition, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX

2010 Black & White, People, Places & Things, MPLS Photo Center, Minneapolis, MN

2010 Art of Photography Show, Lyceum Theatre Gallery, San Diego, CA Award Winner

2010 Photography Now 2010: Part 2: The New Docugraphics, Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY

2010 84th Annual International Competition, The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA

2010 Projecting Freedom: Cinematic Interpretations of the Haggadah, Screenings at Skirball Center at Temple Emanu-El, NY, Jewish Community Center, NY and London, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA

2009 Family Album, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL

2009 MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Thesis Show, School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY

2009 The Urban Garden, Broadway Gallery, New York, NY

2008 Unseen Realities, School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY

2008 Art and Text, Gallery One, Ellensburg, WA

2007 13th Juried Exhibition, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA

2006 PCNW Members' Exhibition, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA

2006 Site and Seen, Art on Center Gallery, Tacoma, WA

2005 PCNW Members' Exhibition, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA

2005 Social Scan, Lexington Art League, Lexington, KY

2005 Membership Exhibition, Houston Center of Photography, Houston, TX

2005 1st Annual National Juried Exhibition, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR

2004 Current Works 2004, Society for Contemporary Photography, Kansas City, MO

2004 Bumberbiennale 2004: Consumables, Seattle, WA

2003 Contemporary Northwest Women Photographers, Frye Art Museum and Washington State Convention and Trade Center, Seattle, WA

2001 Portraits in the Spirit of Annie Leibovitz, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA

GRANTS/AWARDS/RESIDENCIES

2019 Kala Arts Center Residency, Berkeley, CA

2018 Puffin Foundation Grant

2018 Vermont Studio Center Residency, Johnson, VT

2016 Photolucida Critical Mass Finalist

2015 PICTURE BERLIN Residency/Art Academy, Berlin, Germany

2013 The Wassaic Artist Residency, Wassaic , NY (Sept/Oct)

2011 Photolucida Critical Mass Finalist

2011 3rd Ward Fall Open Call Top 50 winner

2011 Review Santa Fe, nominated participant

2010 Award recipient, Art of Photography Show, San Diego, CA

2009 Finalist Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Paris Residency

2008 Chairman’s Grant, School of Visual Arts, NY

2005 Merit Award, Social Scan, Lexington Art League, KY

PUBLICATIONS/ONLINE

L’Oeil de la Photographie (The Eye of Photography), August 2018 Weekend Portfolios https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/cynthia-bittenfield-garde-la-tete-haute-v/

F-STOP Photography Magazine, Issue #85 2017, Home, http://www.fstopmagazine.com/pastissues/85/index.html

Snapped Away, Sequence 2016 http://www.snappedaway.com/exhibition-sequence/

LENSCRATCH Blog, The 2014 Road Trip Exhibition, http://lenscratch.com/2014/08/the-2014-on-the-road-exhibition/

LensCulture, https://www.lensculture.com/explore

LENSCRATCH Blog, The 2013 Lenscratch BACKYARDS Exhibition,

http://www.lenscratch.com/2013/05/the-2013-lenscratch-backyard-exhibition_6658.html

Here Press blog: http://www.herepress.org/blog/

F-STOP Photography Magazine, Issue #57, Juxtaposition, http://www.fstopmagazine.com/groupexhibition.html

Culturehall, www.culturehall.com

PhotoPlace Open 2012: Online Annex, www.vtphotoworkplace.com

LENSCRATCH Blog, The 2012 Lenscratch AMERICANA Exhibition,

http://www.lenscratch.com/2012/07/2012-lenscratch-americana-exhibition_04.html

Fraction Magazine, Issue 38, May 2012, 4th Anniversary Issue, http://fractionmagazine.com/

Fototazo 83: Cynthia Bittenfield 5.02.12, http://www.fototazo.com

LENSCRATCH Blog, The 2012 Lenscratch ANIMALS Exhibition, http://www.lenscratch.com/2012/04/2012-lenscratch-animals-exhibition.html

F-STOP Photography Magazine, Issue #52, Open Theme, http://www.fstopmagazine.com/groupexhibition.html

The Party’s In the Kitchen, http://www.christopherrauschenberg.com/Site/Party.html

LENSCRATCH Blog, http://www.lenscratch.com/2011/10/critical-mass-cynthia-bittenfield.html

Black & White Exhibit Book: Black, White, and Points In Between, MPLS Photo Center

Art of Photography 2010 Exhibition Catalog

Guernica Magazine, August 15, 2010, Art Section, http://www.guernicamag.com/art/1963/bittenfield_8_15_10/

The Sun, Issue 390, June 2008, 42

Shots Magazine, Issue 95: Books and Words, Fall 2006

CONFERENCES

2012 Presenter, Society for Photographic Education, Mid-Atlantic Chapter, A Path Home: Visualizing Trauma and Healing, Jersey City, NJ

2009 Presenter, Twenty-Third Annual National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, Visions of War: the arts represent conflict, School of Visual Arts, NY

SELECTED EXPERIENCE

2016-current Board Member, Baxter St/Camera Club of New York

2014 Portfolio Reviewer, Career Day, International Center of Photography, New York, NY

2012 Curator, Solitude of Space, Camera Club NY, New York, NY

2011—2014 Board Member and Treasurer, Camera Club of New York

2012 Portfolio Reviewer, Career Day, International Center of Photography, New York, NY

2012 Visiting artist lecturer, International Center of Photography, New York, NY

2011 Teaching Assistant, International Center of Photography, New York, NY

2010 Visiting artist lecturer, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

2010 Visiting artist lecturer, International Center of Photography, New York, NY

2009 Assistant, Krzysztof Wodiczko's Veteran's Flame Project, Plot 9, Governor's Island, NY

EDUCATION

2009 MFA Photography, Video and Related Media, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

MEd Instructional Design, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL

BA Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL

(BA sought in Photography) University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI