Jason Florio is a NYC based photographer and writer from London. For the past 10 years he has worked as a freelance photojournalist around the globe for publications including The New Yorker, New York Times, Outside, Liberation and The Times of London, working on stories that attempt to reveal the unseen and to provide an alternative point of view on people and places. At the beginning of his career he had the dubious recognition of being one of the last photographers in Afghanistan to photograph the anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Masoud in August 2000, then to be at the foot of the World Trade Center on September 11th 2000 as it collapsed. Since then he has returned to Central Asia a number of times on both personal journeys and assignments. Whether it’s bat hunting in Suriname or searching for pirates in Somalia he is most at home away from home and immersed into a story. Florio spent the last 3 months of 2009 making a 930 km expedition by foot of The Gambia, West Africa to produce a series of portraits of African chiefs for which in part he was given fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society in London. The Gambia has been a place Florio regularly returns to. For the past 12 years he has made yearly trips there to work on a long term large format portrait project of the people that live in and around a sacred forest there called Makasutu – The culminating body of work was shown in New York in 2009 in a solo exhibition and the work won a Black and White magazine Spotlight Award, as well as garnering him a nomination for the Sante Fe prize. Florio was awarded the Joy of Giving Something grant in 2004 to produce the first ever assigned story for Aperture in their 50 year history, called ‘This is Libya’. His work on Afghanistan is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, as well as a number of private collections. Between magazine assignments and photographing for NGO’s this year he is planning another expedition to West Africa to retrace the journey of his hero, Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who went in search of the source of the Niger River 200 years ago.
Awards
2009 Nominee, Center, Review Santa Fe
2009 Black and White magazine, Spot Light Award
2009 PDN, finalist, Travel Portrait
2004 ‘Joy of Giving Something’, Aperture Grant
2002 Permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art
Solo exhibitions:
2009 “Makasutu” – Messineo Art and Wyman Contemporary Gallery NYC
2005 “Makasutu – Mecca in the Forest”, Half King Gallery NYC
2002 “Afghanistan” – 39th Exposure Gallery, San Francisco
2001 “Afghanistan The Silent Majority” , The Talk Gallery – hosted by Tina Brown, NYC
Group shows:
2007 “Momento Mori” – The Artist Network, NYC
2004 “Residents Show” – The Artist Network, NYC
2003 “Chiapas” – Mckool Studios, Dallas TX
2003 “New acquisitions” – Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
2002 “Afghanistan” – Messineo Wyman Projects, NYC
2001 “The Sept 11th Project” – NYC
Media appearances:
2009 Expedition Gambia – Gambia Television
2009 The Fatou Show – Gambia Television
2009 Nick Wallce show BBC Surrey County Radio UK
2005 Radio interview with Leonard Lopate on National Public Radio to discuss photographing life in Libya for Aperture USA
2002 Fox News ‘911 Experiences’ USA
Videographer credits:
“Until the Violence stops” – 2004
“The Eyes of Faith” – 2000
Book Project:
Makasutu – ‘Mecca in the Forest’
Anthologies:
The Vice Book
The September 11th Project
Editorial clients:
Aperture
Amnesty International
Asia Times Online
Colors
Departures
Die Zeit
Etiqueta Negra
Focus
Geographical
GQ
Interview
La Libération
Marie Claire
Men’s Journal
New York magazine
Newsweek
New York Times
The New Yorker
Outside
Out Traveler
Orion
Sunday Times Travel
The Times of London
Utne Reader
Vibe Vixen
Virginia Quarterly Review
Ventiquattro
W
Wall Street Journal