Katy McCormick
Katy McCormick is a photo-based artist and educator born in Kansas City, Missouri, who is based in Toronto. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A member of the Atomic Photographers Guild since 2014, her work examines commemorative sites, revealing narratives and social histories embedded in landscapes. Her ongoing project, Rooted among the Ashes: Hibakujumoku / The A-bombed Trees, begun in 2008, comprises a series of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivor trees. An exhibition of these works is on view at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, from March – October 2023. The work was also shown at the Quaker Heritage Center, Wilmington College, Ohio, August –December 2022, and was featured in Through Post-atomic Eyes (2020) and Place Matters (2022), both published by McGill-Queens University Press.
McCormick joined TMU in 2006 where she teaches photography, book arts and documentary media in both undergraduate and graduate programs in The School of Image Arts. Prior to joining TMU she was exhibition coordinator and managing editor at Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, Toronto. She previously held teaching appointments at the University of California, Santa Barbara; at Elmhurst College, Chicago; and at Concordia University, Montréal. She was part of the organizing committee and one of the curators of the third edition of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 1993. She has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, together with many TMU internal grants. In2021, she was awarded the Yeates School of Graduate Studies Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education Award.
McCormick is associate professor and interim chair of the School of Image Arts. She has served in many leadership roles at TMU including, Ryerson Gallery Director (2006–2011), director of the Documentary Media MFA Program (2013–18), chair of the Departmental Hiring Committee (2021–2022), chair of the Departmental Evaluation Committee (2021–2022), program director, Photography Studies (2022) and director of the Documentary Media Research Centre (2011–2012, 2022-23). In 2009, she worked with graduate students to develop the Documentary Media “DocNow Festival,” now in its 15th year.
Atomic Photographer's Guild (external link, opens in new window)