Board Members

Frank Yamrus is a fine art photographer who recently moved back to California, this time calling Los Angeles his home. Prior to this relocation, Frank spent eight years in New York City. While living in Manhattan, he started a series of portraits, “A Sense of a Beginning,” capturing in vivid detail and color the impact HIV/AIDS has had on long-term survivors of this disease. In many ways this collection of photographs bookends Frank’s first major body of work, Primitive Behavior. That series of luscious black and white prints was shot in the dunes and marshes of Provincetown, Massachusetts, a space known for anonymous sexual encounters between men. Frank claimed this sacred land as his studio and addressed the psychological issues, such as multiple losses, depression, despair and survivor syndrome, that were devastating his community. Before New York, Frank lived and played in San Francisco —his home after he received his MBA from Drexel University in 1986.

Having exhibited extensively across the United States and Europe, Frank’s’ images can be found in many public and private collections including London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art, The Kinsey Institute of Indiana University, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Special Collections at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His work has been published in numerous catalogues, books and magazines. Frank is represented by ClampArt in New York City and Catherine Couturier Gallery in Houston.

In addition to producing work, Frank has served on the executive and curatorial committees of the Board of Directors at SF Camerawork from 1999 – 2004. During his tenure at SF Camerawork, he co-curated three exhibitions: Untitled [Conjecture], No Exit: Images of Imprisonment, and The Space Between: Locating Intimacy. Frank has also served on the Board of Directors of Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon and on their National Advisory Board.

Philip Geiger is the Director of Education and Communication for the Hospice Giving Foundation, an independent grant-making and educational foundation focused on end-of-life care and preparedness in Monterey and San Benito Counties. Philip is responsible for increasing visibility and engagement in the community, and for promoting active preparation and meaningful discussion for end-of-life issues and care. Before joining HG Foundation in March of 2017, Philip spent five years as Development Director of Legal Services for Seniors. He has served on several nonprofit boards, and currently also sits on the board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Monterey Bay Chapter.

Philip’s serious interest in photography began eight years ago when he accompanied his wife, free-lance writer and writing instructor Lisa Crawford Watson, on an assignment to interview an organic rancher in Hollister. His photographs of the chickens, goats, sheep and guardian dogs started a second career as a journalistic photographer. His photos have now appeared in many local publications including Carmel Pine Cone, Monterey County Herald, Edible Monterey Bay, and Guest Life Monterey Bay, and in two books, Legendary Locals of Carmel-by-the Sea, and Eating with Grace.

As long as she can remember, Susan Hyde Greene has been interested in photography, textiles, and art history, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of Hawaii, Manoa, and a Master of Fine Arts from University of Utah, Salt Lake City. As Susan became aware that the history of art is the history of people, she saw the possibility of bringing people together through the language of art.

Following completion of a Master of Science in Special Education, Susan taught art throughout Marin County, CA, founding Very Special Arts Marin with Youth in Arts as well as Art Pals, an intergenerational arts program. Other teaching include the University of Utah, Santa Clara University and Napa Valley College. As an Access Advisor for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Susan led Art Lovers workshops inspired by current exhibitions from 1995-2015.

Susan has been the fortunate recipient of several awards and grants, and her works are included in many private and public collections. Her pieces have also been included in numerous exhibitions, regionally and nationally. For more information about Susan’s work and achievements, please visit her website: www.susanhydegreene.com

Jacki grew up in Massachusetts, attended high school in Dutchess County, New York and graduated from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont.

Jacki’s first career in hotels started in a ski town inn in New Hampshire and then on to Boston and ultimately to many hotels across the US. She moved into design and construction project management with Hyatt in Monterey. Jacki retired from Apple after a career in real estate and development in Silicon Valley several years ago.

Jacki is an active volunteer at Spirals in Pacific Grove, which supports the Alliance on Aging for Monterey County, and at the Center for Photographic Art.

Photography has been a love since high school where she spent hours in the dorm darkroom and into college where Jacki worked on the newspaper as a photographer and held various editorial positions.

Michelle Piwowarski is a New York native residing in the Bay Area. After graduating from New York University’s Stern School of Business with a dual degree in Finance and International Business, she began her career in financial services. Soon thereafter, Michelle discovered Compliance, geeked out, and pivoted to FinTech so she could use her expertise to help tackle the barriers around financial equity and inclusion. Throughout her career, Michelle has developed deep expertise in process improvement, identifying, evaluating, and mitigating compliance risk, policy development, and building and scaling teams and operations.

Michelle was introduced to photography in high school and fell in love with developing film in the dark room. She continues to enjoy photography, especially when incorporated in mixed media.

Lesha was born and raised in Salinas, California to a father who was a migrant worker – following the fields of the central coast to Yuma, Arizona. Her rugged spirit comes as a direct result of witnessing her family’s daily struggles. She earned an undergraduate degree in Art History from UC Santa Cruz and followed with a Master in Art (MFA) at UC San Diego – with a focus on the cultures and societies of Oaxaca, México. Her graduate work was heavily influenced by California’s migrant workforce whom, like her father, come primarily from México.

She was given her first camera at 8 years old and would run around in her own little world through a viewfinder, documenting everything in sight – from church with her grandmother to flowers in the back yard. Although her photographs lacked a seasoned eye and training – resulting in mostly multiple exposures on the same frame. Even though, she still very much considered those photographs works of art. In her mind, she was certainly already a ‘real photographer.’ As a young adult, her passion for photography flourished. Organically, her educational direction drove her towards the fine arts – earning a graduate degree and becoming a photography teacher in the same junior college where she started her formal training in photography.

Her greatest passion is sharing and learning about photography. In her free time, she continues to take classes and workshops. So far, she has had the privilege to attend and learn from these amazing photographers: Mary Ellen Mark, Charles Harbutt, Joan Liftin, Matt Black, Rebecca Norris Webb, Alex Webb, Nikos Economopoulos, Ted Orland, Brain Taylor and Maggie Taylor.

Lesha’s current work is focused on refining her techniques through continued experimentation along with proven results in the alternative photography process. When not experimenting and working in alternative photography, she can be found practicing her street photography. She divides her time between Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and Oaxaca, México.

A lifelong Californian, Nancy received her BA degree from Chico State University and later went on to earn her Master’s degree in sculpture from San Jose State University.

She has been an active volunteer and docent for the Monterey Museum of Art, and ran an outreach program for an elementary school in Salinas. As an Adjunct-Professor, Nancy has taught photography at Hartnell College for the past eight years, often sharing with her students the astute exhibitions at the Center for Photographic Art.

Nancy is both a practicing artist and a curator. In 2018, her alternative processes photography was included in CPA’s Artists as Teachers exhibition.  In early 2019, her impressive solo exhibition Resampled & Rearranged: Musical Objects Recomposed, featured large-scale installation work in the two-story gallery at Hartnell College. Her process highlights repurposed found and discarded instruments taken from the dump and off the streets, and makes use of their broken parts to explore the possibilities of new arrangements, new beginnings and new ways of seeing. She has also participated in many of CPA’s annual 8 x 10 fundraising exhibitions.

In addition to being an art maker, Nancy is also a curator. In 2016 she curated the exhibition Dress Tents, by artists Robin Lasser and Adriane Pao for the Center for Photographic Art. She has also curated a number of other exhibitions, including Modified and Re-Modified, two group exhibitions featuring artists who repurpose the found object, and Sonic, a group show of artists using sound as their medium.

Nancy’s photographs can be found in the collection of the Monterey Museum of Art, her mixed-media work which combines the photograph and the found object, in the Katie and Drew Gibson Collection, and her sculptural work, Lady Be Good, at the Westland House – Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.

Most recently, Nancy assisted with the Henry Horenstein Workshop for CPA and went on tour to Cambodia with former Assistant Director Rick Murai.

Heather Snider is an independent curator, writer, and consultant with 30 years of experience in the fine art photography field. Originally from Miami, Florida, Heather came to California to attend Stanford University and then began her gallery career at Vision Gallery in San Francisco. She also worked as Director at Scott Nichols Gallery and most recently as the Executive Director of SF Camerawork. Heather has written about photography extensively for national and international publications and curated exhibitions in the US, China, and South Africa. She previously served on the boards of SF Camerawork, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, and Chinese Artist Network. Though not a photographer herself, Heather grew up in a photography family and is a true fan of the medium and its relevance to contemporary life and cultural progress. Heather’s main creative outlet is music; she is a multi-instrumentalist but mostly a rock drummer. She currently plays with the band Sister Exister and lives in San Francisco.

Jan has been passionate about photography since high school when she was given her grandfather’s Yashica twin lens reflex camera. Born in Oakland, and raised in Taipei, she has a BFA in Photography from California College of Arts and Crafts and is a practicing artist and curator, making photographs for more than 25 years in her Oakland studio in the Jingletown Arts District. She has shown domestically and internationally, and has been honored with numerous photography awards including being profiled in Black and White Magazine.

Jan is the program director of a national journalism awards program and founder of Gray Loft Gallery in Oakland, an alternative art gallery showcasing emerging and established artists in the Bay Area.

When she is not working or volunteering her time at Gray Loft Gallery, she can be found with her analog camera working on her current series Unexpected Landscapes. More about Jan can be found on her website janwatten.com.

janwatten.com.