R. J. Kern

R. J. Kern (born 1978) is an American artist, known for his photographs exploring identity, culture, and philosophical questions about nature and heritage through the interaction of people, animals and landscape. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and in Canada, China, England, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Japan and Norway, at venues including the National Portrait Gallery, London, Rourke Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art Tbilisi, and Yixian International Photography Festival (Anhui, China) among many. Kern has received awards and recognition from the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, the photography non-profit CENTER, and the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, and was chosen one of PDN's "30 New and Emerging Photographers" in 2018. Kern's work has been showcased by PBS, The Guardian (London), The Telegraph (London), the Star Tribune, and National Geographic, with a feature of his "The Unchosen Ones" and "Out to Pasture" series. In 2018, Kehrer Verlag published Kern's monograph, The Sheep and the Goats, which features a conversation with noted photographer Stuart Klipper and was named one of "The Most Beautiful German Books 2018" by design foundation Stiftung Buchkunst. Kern's next self-published monograph, The Unchosen Ones, won a 2018 Communication Arts "Award of Excellence." Public collections holding Kern's work include the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Plains Art Museum, the Center for Creative Photography, and the Griffin Museum of Photography.