Ahndraya Parlato Headshot

Ahndraya Parlato

Assistant Professor, Photo Arts and Sciences

School of Photographic Arts and Sciences
College of Art and Design
adppph@rit.edu
Office Location
GAN-2189

Ahndraya Parlato

Assistant Professor, Photo Arts and Sciences

School of Photographic Arts and Sciences
College of Art and Design

Education

BA, Bard College; MFA, California College of the Arts

Bio

Ahndraya Parlato has a BA from Bard College and an MFA from California College of the Arts. She has published four books: TIME TO KILL, (Mack Books, 2026), Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead, (Mack Books, 2021), A Spectacle and Nothing Strange, (Kehrer Verlag, 2016), and East of the Sun, West of the Moon, (a collaboration with Gregory Halpern, Études Books, 2014). 

 Additionally, Ahndraya has contributed texts to: 23 Devotions to Francesca Woodman (Saint Lucy Books, 2026), Double Feature (St. Lucy Books, 2025), Photo No-Nos: Meditations on What Not to Shoot (Aperture, 2021), and The Photographer’s Playbook (Aperture, 2014). 

She has exhibited work at: the George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, Spazio Labo, in Bologna, Italy, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, The Aperture Foundation, New York, NY, and The Swiss Institute, Milan, Italy. Ahndraya has been awarded residencies at The Ellis Beauregard Foundation, Light Work and The Visual Studies Workshop, and grants from Light Work, the New York Foundation for the Arts and The Joy of Giving Something Foundation. She and has been a nominee for the ICP Infinity Award, the Paul Huf Award from the FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, and the SECCA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and is a 2024 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow.

 Ahndraya has also taught in the Bard College and Cornell Image Text MFA programs.

adppph@rit.edu
Personal Links
Personal Website
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of Expertise
Fine Art Photography
Photography

Select Scholarship

Select Awards

2026 Ellis Beauregard Foundation Residency

2024 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship

2022 Light Work Fellowship Recipient, Syracuse, NY

2020   Joy of Giving Something, JGS Grant for Photography Recipient 

Select Publications

2026 TIME TO KILL, Mack Books, (monograph)

2021    Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead, Mack Books, (monograph)

2016    A Spectacle and Nothing Strange, Kehrer Verlag, (monograph)

2014    East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Études Books (monograph with                       Gregory Halpern)

Select Exhibitions

2026     TIME TO KILL, Loock Gallery, Paris Photo, Paris, FR

             TIME TO KILL, The George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY  

2024     Shadow/Figure, Light Work, Syracuse, NY

            Folding Suns, Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, Buffalo, NY

2022     Who Is Dead and Who Is Changed, Spazio Labo, Bologna, Italy

              Who Is Dead and Who Is Changed, Bildband, Berlin, Germany   

2021     What’s Your Name When You’re at Home, Penumbra Foundation, New                  York, NY    

2019    Radial Survey, Silver Eye, Pittsburgh, PA

Currently Teaching

PHAR-599
Photography Independent Study
1-3 Credits
Photography Independent Study will provide students with the ability to study in a specialized area with an individual faculty member. Students, with the assistance of a faculty adviser, will propose a course of study. Photography Independent Study students must obtain permission of an instructor and complete the Independent Study Permission Form to enroll.
PHFA-302
Fine Art Core II
3 Credits
This course is the second in a sequence of two principal production and critique classes for students in the fine art photography option of the BFA program. Each student will analyze, interpret, and develop a meaningful practice to create personal artwork. Course emphasis requires students to produce a contemporary photographic-based independent body of work and demonstrate best practices within the fine arts.
PHFA-511
Contemporary Issues
3 Credits
A study of current issues relevant to imaging-based fine art photography and related media; how they relate to broader historical/cultural issues; and how they might suggest future directions. Emphasis is placed on the integration of critical theoretical discourse and studio practice. This course is a touchstone to current and future fine art practices through its engagement with a variety of subjects. This course can be taken multiple times but individual topics must be different.
PHGR-611
Contemporary Issues
3 Credits
This course will study current issues relevant to imaging-based fine art photography and related media; how they relate to broader historical/cultural issues, and how they might suggest future directions. Emphasis is placed on the integration of critical theoretical discourse and studio practice. This course is a touchstone to current and future fine art practices through its engagement with a variety of subjects. This course may be repeated with different topics. Topic is determined by the instructor.
PHGR-704
Studio Core II
6 Credits
This critique course is the second in a two semester sequence. Having established a working methodology in Studio Core I, students will continue to experiment and produce a significant body of work through critical engagement with their peers and their own research and experimentation. Successful completion of the course will result in advancement to half-candidacy via a formal review by MFA faculty.
PHGR-724
Professional Development for the Emerging Artist
3 Credits
This course prepares students for entering a career in the arts. Course content covers practical information related to professional practice such as crafting a CV, grant writing, writing an artist’s statement, creating a professional application packet and researching exhibition spaces and other opportunities for artists.
PHGR-799
MFA Photography Independent Study
1-4 Credits
An independent study allows graduate students in the Photography and Related Media program the ability to study in a specialized area with an individual faculty member. Students, with the assistance of a faculty adviser, should propose a course of study or project with clearly defined goals and outcomes. Students must obtain permission of an instructor and complete the Independent Study Permission Form to enroll. **NOTE: Student must have a minimum 3.0 GPA *
PHGR-890
Thesis
6 Credits
Students produce a thesis as a component of the MFA degree in Photography and Related Media. The completion of the thesis exhibition, from artwork to the installation, is the focus of this course.

In the News

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Featured Work

artwork featuring blue paint in the background with white stars, and a figure covered with a black fabric in the foreground.

Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

Ahndraya Parlato

In Who is Changed and Who is Dead, I use the life-changing events of my mother’s suicide and the birth of my children as the genesis for an expansive project exploring the contradictory and complex...

View More about Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead
A group of artists look at photo prints spread out on a table.

RIT x Magnum Visual Storytelling Course

Gregory Halpern, Ahndraya Parlato

In the summer of 2025 at RIT, Ahndraya Parlato and I launched “A Short Course in Visual Storytelling,” a new collaboration between RIT and Magnum Photos. 

View More about RIT x Magnum Visual Storytelling Course
artwork with a white piece of paper on a background with purple, green, and cream splotches. There is an eyeball looking through a hole in the paper.

A Spectacle and Nothing Strange

Ahndraya Parlato

Irrational images flash through our minds all the time, in dreams and daydreams. This project imagines an oscillation between these "internal" and "external" images, revealing the possibilities of...

View More about A Spectacle and Nothing Strange