The Artists
Artists Francisco Diaz and Deb Young are the creators of the International Collaboration Project, a digital photographic collaboration positioning them as pioneers in this landscape. Working over 8,800 miles apart, Diaz (USA) and Young (New Zealand) combine their candid photographs into series of reality-bending narratives. The themes of their work often have an underlying lo-fi sensibility, exploring both childlike wonder and imagination, as well as intense adult stories with darker twists.
The two artists have been part of multiple exhibitions, competitions and projects. Accolades include being named “International Photographers of the Year” at the 6th Edition Pollux Awards, the Fine Art and Documentary Photography Biennial held in Malaga, Spain, first prize at the Texas Photographic Society International Photography Competition and the New York Center for Photographic Arts, awarded the 9th Julia Margaret Cameron Award at the 4th Biennial of Fine Art + Documentary Photography in Berlin, and more.
Exhibitions include Gilman Contemporary in Ketchum, Idaho, the Center for Fine Art Photography in Ft. Collins, Colorado, the Kolga Awards in Tbilisi, Georgia, Z Gallery Arts in Vancouver, BC and The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa, FL. They have been featured in prestigious online photography and arts magazines such as Positive Magazine, Musee Magazine, Feature Shoot, PH Magazine, F-Stop Magazine, the Eye of Photography, Creative Boom, Lenswork, amongst many more.
Born in the U.S. with Cuban-Spanish heritage, Diaz’s predilection for artists like Goya, El Greco, and the still lifes of Juan Bautista de Espinosa may come from that background. With many childhood years spent in Brooklyn on Coney Island, the posters, crumbling rides, the idea of a shredded environment, became a major visual inspiration for his future work.
Young’s passion for photography came to life when she was given the opportunity to work behind the scenes on the publication of New Zealand Photography Magazine, editing, shooting, image processing, judging the monthly-run competitions and interviewing professional photographers. Her early connection and fascination with documentary photography lead to Young shooting the streets of Auckland using a variety of analogue cameras.
The Project
The idea that two artist photographers — one male, the other female — can work together while being separated by a vast ocean, is revolutionary — but such is the nature of this groundbreaking exploration, The International Collaboration Project by Francisco Diaz (USA) + Deb Young (New Zealand).
In pushing boundaries, Diaz + Young’s radical approach to collaborative montage is unique in photographic history. Described as “disturbingly beautiful”, they seldom use models, props or set-ups, but create from totally random images. Though separated by more than 8,000 miles, their collaborative process encompasses working together remotely in real time on one piece and viewing through each other’s camera.
Their collaboration is based on gender equality to both redress the imbalance of woman in the art world and to infuse their narrative work with a masculine/feminine sensibility. Many series are plot related not just theme related, with an underlying lo-fi sensibility.
They are the face of 21st century digital photography where art photographers collaborate from different corners of the globe, blending creative energies as an example of true cooperation amongst global strangers in these difficult times.
Their work has caught the attention of prominent photographic publications from L’Oeil de la Photographie to Hi-Fructose magazine. The International Collaboration Project duo were chosen “International Photographers of the Year” with their work winning in 3 categories at the 6TH EDITION OF THE POLLUX AWARDS — the 3rd Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography exhibition in Malaga, Spain. The Neutral Density Photography Awards gave the duo 1st place in the Fine Art – Photo Manipulation category, they were awarded the 9th Julia Margaret Cameron Award at the 4th Biennial of Fine Art + Documentary Photography in Berlin, included in Photolucida’s prestigious Critical Mass Top 50 and awarded 1st Place and a Gold Medal at the Moscow International Foto Awards.
The prestigious book, “Fossils of Light + Time”, included their work and Diaz + Young were signed by the legendary Susan Spiritus Gallery, exhibited with Gilman Contemporary in 2017 and Z Gallery Arts in 2018.