Eric Kunsman - Featured Faculty 2023

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portrait of Eric Kunsman

Eric Kunsman

National Technical Institute for the Deaf

Kunsman is a photographer who focuses on socioeconomic and social issues within the United States with a visual sociology and documentary approach. His current ongoing project examines how payphones are used as social markers of race, class, and economics in Rochester and throughout the United States.

Kunsman is collaborating with Rebekah Walker (Digital Humanities and Social Science Librarian at RIT), Michael Riordan (Independent Good), and Dr. Janelle Duda-Banwar (On the Ground Research) on a project called "Good Phones." The "Good Phones" will bring communication accessibility back to the poorest citizens in Rochester with free VoIP phones in the housing of former payphones. Along with free phone calls, the phones will allow a user to access voicemail across the entire network of phones located within the 585 area code. The collaborative group is also creating an international map of payphone locations in relationship to socioeconomic and race data overlays with the help of individuals worldwide.

Kunsman's work has been exhibited in 38 solo exhibitions and included in over 280 group exhibitions internationally. He was named one of 10 B&W photographers to watch of 2018 by BWGallerist; B&W Best Photographers of the Year 2019 by Dodho Magazine; won the Association of Photography (UK) Gold Award for Open Series in 2019; Finalist, Top 200 Critical Mass 2019, 2020, 2021; Top 15 Photographers for the Rust Belt Biennial; and LensCulture B&W Jurors' Pick 2021. His Project Felicific Calculus was also awarded a Warhol Foundations Grant through the CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, NY.

Kunsman's photographic work has also been published in magazines such as Bloomberg Businessweek, Harper’s Magazine, LensWork, Dodho, B&W Photography, Analog Explorations, All About Photo, Black+White Photography (UK), Dek Unu, along with online articles by Analog Forever Magazine, Catalyst: Interview, Texas Photo Society, and others. He, along with Debe Arlook, a Los Angeles-based photographer, is creating a book titled "Both Side of the Table: Photography Portfolio Revies Do's & Don'ts" that will be published by the RIT Press in 2024. Kunsman truly believes in the collaborative spirit in all his projects, which allows him to grow as a photographer and person. Eric is also a co-coordinator of the RIT Big Shot, which is a collaborative project recognized internationally in which a photograph is created through painting with light.

Eric Kunsman
Assistant Professor
Department of Visual Communications Studies
National Technical Institute for the Deaf

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