Talk

MPS Digital Photography presents a talk with documentary and portrait photographer Nicky Quamina-Woo. Quamina-Woo is a Black and Native Hawaiian visual storyteller who divides her time between the African continent, Southeast Asia, and New York City. Woo has traveled to and lived in more than 22 countries within the Global South, mainly focusing on stories related to healthcare, social justice, and anything connected to the long shadows of trauma that often fall across marginalized communities. Her projects center on the complex realities that are precipitated by Western colonization, exploring how cultures survive in the wake of systemic rupture. The collective aftermath and the myriad ways it can shift a group’s underlying ethos to form something new—adaptation as a means of survival. Her desire to examine these transformations is deeply rooted in her own ethnic heritage, the parallels of which motivate her to seek resonance, human fortitude, and healing amidst the ongoing impacts of community upheaval.

Quamina-Woo has won a Nikon-Stafford FotoReportage grant, American Photography 37 and 40, Portrait of Humanity, and a Reuters Storytelling grant for her work on a Tanzania-based project about the intersection of Western medicine and witchcraft. Her clients include The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, Human Rights Watch, Facebook, NPR, Apple, Vogue Italia, The Melinda French-Gates Foundation, and Reporters Beyond Borders.

Starting in 2011 and after over 250 lectures, the i3: Images, Ideas, Inspiration Lecture series continues to feature leading photographers, artists, editors, gallerists, and industry experts. The fall 2025 i3 Lecture season is curated and hosted by MPS Digital Photography faculty member Julie Grahame. Most past lectures are available on YouTube and Vimeo.