About Vance Gellert:
A Journey in Portraiture and Healing Practices
My photography career started in the medical sciences (pharmacology). During my PhD training I became interested in plant medicines and complementary/traditional healing practices. The I discovered that qualitative nature of these practices is best understood through the lens of the arts. I went on for an MFA in photography. The interests in these practices took me to Bolivia and Peru for months of investigation and photography (Smoke and Mirrors).
I’m a photographer who tells stories of people with shared experiences. Some are artists, either masters, or self-taught. Others have helped me understand and communicate the commonalities of healing practices, the trauma of loss, the surreal experience of fatherhood, the challenge of homelessness, the range the American experience, and the cohesive power of community life and endeavor.
My work is in numerous collections as well as exhibited nationally and internationally. I have received numerous grants for my work including an Artist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1991 I founded and was director and curator of pARTs Photographic Arts, an internationally known center for photography in Minneapolis. I left that organization in 2003 to dedicate my time to photography.