Gillian Laub


Gillian Laub is an American photographer and fllm maker based New York. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in comparative literature before studying photography at the International Center of Photography.

Life

Gillian Laub was born in 1975 in Chappaqua, New York.

Work

Laub is known for her documentary portraits of families, friends and strangers, which she describes as 'search of a deeper understanding of family and tribe in all its forms'.
Her exhibition Common Ground placed Palestinian and Israeli children, families, and even soldiers next to each other, leaving the viewer wondering which person belongs to which culture.
An American Life intimately documents Laub’s own family, portraying moments in various members of her extended family from Florida to New York City, as well as the Westchester suburbs.
Laub’s Dateline Israel was shown at the Jewish Museum in New York City in 2007. That same year her first monograph Testimony, which includes fifty portraits of Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, displaced Lebanese families, and Palestinians, was published by Aperture, which also presented her with an Emerging Artist’s Award. “To consider these images is to be reminded not just of human cruelty and human stupidity but also of human tenacity.”
Laub’s work is contained in the collection of many museums, including the International Center of Photography, New York, NY, the Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX, the Terrana Collection, Boston, MA, and the Jewish Museum, New York, NY, among others. She regularly photographs for Time and the New York Times Magazine, among many other publications.
Laub is the recipient of the Aaron Siskind fellowship and Jerome Foundation Grant. She is represented by Benrubi Gallery. Laub's first feature - length documentary film, also titled Southern Rites, was released on HBO in Spring 2015.