July 2026 Featured Artist
Photographer Finds Her Independence and Unique Voice, Then Helps Others Do the Same
An Interview with Karen Ghostlaw
Karen Ghostlaw with her Work "Multiplicity in Motion"
Photo Courtesy: Karen Ghostlaw |
Karen Ghostlaw is an internationally exhibited and published photographer, multidisciplinary artist, curator, editor, and arts advocate. Her work explores identity, perception, memory, reflection, and the relationship between humanity and the environments we inhabit. Working across photography, installation, mixed media, and alternative photographic processes, she creates visual narratives that encourage deeper engagement with contemporary life.
Karen is a Pratt Institute graduate whose work lives boldly between painting and photography. Trained in 35mm and large-format film, darkroom processes, printmaking, and hand-crafted bookbinding, she brings a rare depth of craft to every image. In 2012, Karen engaged in self-portraiture and reflection — layering environment, light, and identity to forge a signature visual language. That exploration earned her a spot in Leica Myself (2013), a curated collection of self-portraits celebrating Leica Camera's centennial. It was just the beginning. Since then, Karen's reflective self-portraits have been shown in the Women's Street Photographers NYC Exhibitions (2019 & 2020), and Praxis Gallery's 2020 "Portraits" show — and the exploration never stops. Karen is the Editorial Director of The Pictorial List, an international photography magazine dedicated to visual storytelling, and Co-Founder and Vice President of the Pictorial Foundation, a not-for-profit arts organization supporting artists through exhibitions, publications, education, and cultural exchange. She is also a Signature Member of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA). Through her artistic practice and leadership, Karen continues to explore photography's ability to transform perception, foster dialogue, and create meaningful connections across communities and cultures. |
Contributor Susan M. Rostan, MFA, Ed.D. had the opportunity to get to know Karen in a Zoom meeting that covered her artistic development, work, teaching, editorial roles at The Pictorial List Magazine, her co-founded Pictorial Foundation, and, more recently, The ArtSpace in Newburgh, New York.
I have an interest in the early development of artistic talent. It's one of my areas of research and writing. So let's start there with your early childhood encounters with art.
I don't know if I was ever really encouraged to do artwork, especially by my dad. I was very good in math and academics; I was always a straight-A student, so art was never really something he thought I would go into, but my mother would have told you I was always making things. Whether I was in the swamp and mud, creating things from the mud, or in school creating habitats for science through ecology, or pinning blankets together to make forts and things like that, I was always creating. But it was my high school art teacher, Maggie Caccamo, who was a major influence in my life. She identified my talent and suggested that I apply to art schools. I had never considered that, but she felt that I would be a really good candidate to become an artist. She totally changed the direction I was planning to take after high school, and all of a sudden, I realized I loved art and wanted to be an artist.
I have an interest in the early development of artistic talent. It's one of my areas of research and writing. So let's start there with your early childhood encounters with art.
I don't know if I was ever really encouraged to do artwork, especially by my dad. I was very good in math and academics; I was always a straight-A student, so art was never really something he thought I would go into, but my mother would have told you I was always making things. Whether I was in the swamp and mud, creating things from the mud, or in school creating habitats for science through ecology, or pinning blankets together to make forts and things like that, I was always creating. But it was my high school art teacher, Maggie Caccamo, who was a major influence in my life. She identified my talent and suggested that I apply to art schools. I had never considered that, but she felt that I would be a really good candidate to become an artist. She totally changed the direction I was planning to take after high school, and all of a sudden, I realized I loved art and wanted to be an artist.
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So she was actually your first mentor; she gave you the sense of what you're capable of and pointed you in that direction. I was scared because I didn't have my father's approval, and I didn't know how I was going to make it work. But she insisted that I'm a woman, that I can do it, that I can do it on my own, and that I can be independent and don't have to rely on other people. I needed to learn in life that we need to exist independently of other influences. So I call these my ‘big-girl Maggie pants.’ I had my big-girl Maggie pants, and whenever I felt not confident in school, I would put them on. Even later on, in my professional life, I tend to step into my mentor's shoes, embrace that independence and confidence, and try to direct that inward. It's almost like internalizing their presence. So I took out many loans, went to Pratt, and graduated with honors. My mentor there, American photographer William Gedney, was the next influence in my life. He taught us that photography wasn't just about taking an image, it was about visual storytelling. He was also a hand-bound bookbinder, so we learned to create and craft books. I learned about photography, not as creating the hero image — not that we all don't want to have that beautiful image — but how photography can tell a story. And that's the way that I've approached my photography ever since. |
Karen at her Desk
Photo Courtesy: Karen Ghostlaw |
As a mentor, what more did William Gedney give you?
What I think I learned from him was all of the tools and techniques in photography, like never focus on the subject or the center of the frame — to understand our perimeters, our edges. If we were going to tell a story and there were things cut off, wherever the edges ended, our frame, we had to make sure that was a full story in itself, and that the middle, the center, the subject would become what it was within that frame.
What I think I learned from him was all of the tools and techniques in photography, like never focus on the subject or the center of the frame — to understand our perimeters, our edges. If we were going to tell a story and there were things cut off, wherever the edges ended, our frame, we had to make sure that was a full story in itself, and that the middle, the center, the subject would become what it was within that frame.
Self-Portrait, 2026
© Karen Ghostlaw |
He taught me things I use today about critiques: It was never about being critical of somebody's work. It was about creative and critical thinking. So even if you didn't like something, you would never say, ‘I don't like that,’ or ‘you should have done this.’ I learned to ask the artist questions, like ‘What are you trying to say?’ or ‘Tell me about how you're explaining that in the frame.’ Afterward, I could make suggestions to them about how to see it or how they might go about doing it, but it was never critical. And I think, because my dad was very critical of things for me, it was freeing not to criticize myself constantly. I tend to be an overachiever, and it was a way for me to avoid feeling pressured to be critical. And I try to do that now during a portfolio review. I ask a lot of questions and let the artist tell me what's going on in the work. I would never try to tell them they shouldn't do this anymore, crop their work, or change what they're doing. Every artist is different.
Did you have an opportunity to get your foot in the field before you married and had children? I did. I worked in a portrait studio in downtown Brooklyn for quite a while. I did not really like being a portrait photographer, the studio lighting and that kind of work. But I made a ton of money, more than my husband, who was an architect at the time. Then I had an accident with my knee and a series of five surgeries that stopped me in my tracks. After the last two, my husband and I decided it might be time to have children. We had four children, and I homeschooled all four until they went to university. |
What made you decide to homeschool your children?
We put our children in private school and went into debt to pay for their education. The kids did not want to go to school. They decided I would homeschool, and that whole summer before we did, I remember crying. I can't even tell you how many times I thought I was going to ruin their lives. The first year, we tried to put together our own curriculum. In the second year, we found a really good program called Calvert School, which provides each child with a structured framework for what they need to complete each day. And then, as the children got older, they started actually teaching and tutoring their younger siblings just through questions.
We put our children in private school and went into debt to pay for their education. The kids did not want to go to school. They decided I would homeschool, and that whole summer before we did, I remember crying. I can't even tell you how many times I thought I was going to ruin their lives. The first year, we tried to put together our own curriculum. In the second year, we found a really good program called Calvert School, which provides each child with a structured framework for what they need to complete each day. And then, as the children got older, they started actually teaching and tutoring their younger siblings just through questions.
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They all got into the schools they wanted to attend — London Contemporary Dance for my oldest daughter, Central Saint Martins for my youngest son, and School of Visual Arts for my middle child, who also received the Yale Norfolk residency last year. My oldest son did not want to go to college. We did not force him. They're all very high achievers. Did homeschooling affect you as an artist? We did hand-bound bookbinding with illustrations and drawings. They came up with stories, and the stories grew and grew, page after page, like little novels. So I would say that my art did not suffer. It was just redirected differently. It's probably why I have the foundation. I like to give to our artists because I get a lot of satisfaction from watching them find themselves through art. Watching children embrace art and doing art projects with them was just as fulfilling as creating work at the time. There was a time when they started becoming more independent, and I bought my Leica. William Gedney had a Leica. So, I went back. I had to relearn who I was as a woman, as an artist, as a photographer. Self-portraiture for me began as a self-exploration, of learning who I was again — if I wasn't a mother, a teacher, a wife, all those other things, who was I?
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Self-Portrait, 2014
© Karen Ghostlaw |
And even the self-portraiture began to change after a while. It became very much about what I looked like at first, about having even to like what I looked like. And then, they became much more abstract, because it wasn't so much about me anymore.
Self-Portrait, 2008
© Karen Ghostlaw |
Self-Portrait, 2017
© Karen Ghostlaw |
Self-Portrait, 2023
© Karen Ghostlaw |
I began to focus more on the woman's place in the world. Rarely do you see my face now. I want anybody to be able to step into those shoes. Because I already know who I am now. I don't have to see what I look like anymore. But I feel all of the things around me, and those are the things that I'm always navigating.
Reacting to your work as an artist, I find a connection to Richard Estes, whose work gives you a sense of loneliness. You are inserting yourself there, which is a very different take.
It's interesting. I don't do well when I'm lonely. I enjoy interacting with people all the time. But now that I have so much of it, I do like a Monday when I try not to communicate with people and have that quiet time. Right now, with the foundation, I'm giving so much to everybody else all the time. I need one day when there's nothing but me — I may do nothing but sit in my pajamas all day. It's just to be present for myself.
So this would be where you find sanctuary?
Yeah, my Monday, my sanctuary.
It's interesting. I don't do well when I'm lonely. I enjoy interacting with people all the time. But now that I have so much of it, I do like a Monday when I try not to communicate with people and have that quiet time. Right now, with the foundation, I'm giving so much to everybody else all the time. I need one day when there's nothing but me — I may do nothing but sit in my pajamas all day. It's just to be present for myself.
So this would be where you find sanctuary?
Yeah, my Monday, my sanctuary.
So it's not so much a place but a state of mind for you.
Yeah. I'm finding it hard now, even on that day, to engage consistently with my work because I'm so immersed in interviews, Zoom calls, meetings with artists, and portfolio reviews. Now I actually have to push myself to practice my art. Somebody said to me, ‘It's okay. Everybody needs a break.’
Yeah. I'm finding it hard now, even on that day, to engage consistently with my work because I'm so immersed in interviews, Zoom calls, meetings with artists, and portfolio reviews. Now I actually have to push myself to practice my art. Somebody said to me, ‘It's okay. Everybody needs a break.’
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But right now, I really want to find time to create three-dimensional work — my nude silks, from a Gedney class. It's a double exposure I didn't intend, sitting in my archive for over 40 years. Now I've created a six-layer silk installation where you can feel the women's bodies moving; it becomes very holographic. I've been offered a solo exhibition if I can fill a full gallery with silks like this. But that needs a month without distractions, not just Mondays. I have all these ideas and sketches, but it hasn't come together into a whole body of work yet.
Reading your interviews with artists in the Pictorial List magazine, I see that you've also been writing about art. Yes. If we have a really well-developed artist, they'll write their own story, and we support their narrative. But then we get other artists who don't understand how to create a dialogue with their works. So we hope that the questions we ask and the way that we read their work will help them develop a narrative. I could run a whole class on writing an artist statement for a work. It's hard. People don't know how to write about their work, especially photographers, because photographers think, for some reason, Oh, the photograph says it all. I don't need to talk about it. But as an artist, you need to be able to talk about your work and engage other people. [You need to be ready.] If you’re in a gallery or an exhibition and somebody asks you [about your work], what are you going to say? Sometimes I've worked with artists for months before we get an article that's ready to be published, that represents their version of the work. It sounds to me that this is stepping into the role of mentorship as well. Yeah, I love that role. Probably homeschooling — I don't regret one day of it. |
The Pictorial List, Volume 1, New York
© Karen Ghostlaw |
Pictorial Foundation, CODE GIRL
Photo Courtesy: Karen Ghostlaw |
You are providing that kind of support to emerging artists, and that appears to continue in your foundation. For us, the thing that makes us the happiest is when I see an artist come to us who has no confidence — didn’t even think they should be published. We do an interview. We help them create a narrative; then, all of a sudden, we start watching them grow, and then, they become the leader of the women's street photography platform. That's a huge success for us. That's really what we want to be about. And that's why we felt a not-for-profit was the way we wanted to go. Through programming, initiatives, grants, and sponsorships, we will get enough funding to keep our organization alive and healthy. We recently received a grant from The Philip and Edith Leonian Foundation to build a camera obscura in one of the courtyard's intermodal shipping containers. So we're very excited about that. It's a wonderful venture that you're involved in. That's my big-girl Maggie Pants. |
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UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
Karen's Exhibitions: Art World Marbella VIP Artist July 30-August 2, 2026 Solo Exhibition Cunneen-Hackett Art Center "Defeat for Women Installation" May-June, 2027 Upcoming Foundation Exhibitions/Happenings: CODE GIRL 105 Ann Street Newburgh, New York May 30 through July 26, 2026 Pictorial Foundation Film Festival 105 Ann Street Newburgh, New York August 8-9, 2026 Camera Obscura (Funded by Leonian Foundation ~ Walk In Camera Obscura) 105 Ann Street Newburgh, New York September 4-30, 2026 (Workshop Dates: TBA) |
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