CURRENT INSTRUCTORS
Johnna Arnold lives and works in Oakland, CA as a photographer and artist. She received a BFA in photography from Bard College and her MFA from Mills College in 2005. Her work has been shown at the Headlands center for the arts, San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery, and SF Camerawork. Her work is represented by Traywick Contemporary. (johnnaarnold.com | traywick.com/gallery/arnold)
Carlos Arrieta is a Commercial/Fashion photographer based in unpredictable San Francisco. His past clients range from small clothing designers and retail chains to high-end video gaming companies to the unique and peculiar individual. He is also invested in local artist development through consultation and tech aid through photographic, audio, and web representation. Carlos is a commercial photography MFA candidate, and the newest addition to the RayKo’s digital lab staff.
Jo Babcock has worked with pinhole and plastic cameras for over thirty years. He is best known for his VW Van Camera and for his book, The INVENTED CAMERA. Babcock is an Associate Professor of Art at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where he teaches Photo History and Alternative Processes in Photography.
Tim Baskerville, B.F.A., received his degree in photography and liberal arts from the University of San Francisco. He has been photographing at night for more than 25 years, and currently teaches night photography at UC Berkeley Extension, UC Santa Cruz. and the College of Marin. He has taught at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, the Cape Cod Photographic Workshops, and conducts a yearly workshop West of Ireland. He originally curated The Nocturnes, a Night Photography exhibit, in 1991, and founded the website ((thenocturnes.com) in 1996. His work has received many awards, and has appeared in numerous publications and exhibitions internationally. ((timbaskerville.com)
Connie Begg is a fine art photographer specializing in alternative photographic processes. She received a M.F.A from Mills College in Oakland, CA and maintains an art studio and darkroom in the Bayview district of SF. Her photographs can be found in many private collections and have been exhibited locally, nationally and internationally.
Elizabeth Bernstein is an artist and educator who lives and works in Oakland. Currently she is the Co-Director of the Royal NoneSuch Gallery in the Temescal district of Oakland and the Art Director and instructor at the Boys & Girl’s club in San Francisco. She grew up in New York City and attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, and then went on to receive her M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007. She is a photographer whose work examines the visual language of our daily lives, and how it communicates our complex emotional and psychological landscape. Elizabeth has shown her work on the East Coast and in the Bay Area.
Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik is an artist and writer based in San Francisco with a B.A. in Studio Art from Scripps College and M.A./M.F.A candidacy in Visual and Critical Studies and Interdiscipliniary Art at the California College of the Arts. She has exhibited her photography and multimedia installations with organizations such as Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) and the APAture festival, the Mission Arts Performance Project (MAPP), and the Center for Sex and Culture (CSC). She recently co-curated Post ID: Identity Infused Art for a Post-Identity World. She is the Art Editor for Hyphen magazine and a founding member of the 24hourshow art collective. With an extensive background in marketing and event production, Sita has worked with Dwell, Maker Faire, and Wired magazine and is known to throw a killer party. (sitabhaumik.com)
Johanna Case-Hofmeister believes there is nothing better than a large negative made by a view camera, especially a color negative used to make a huge print. After mastering the basics, she has spent days, years, trying out new ways of shooting with this typically thought of stationary studio camera by taking it wherever she goes. As if the camera were a really fast expensive car, she’s always trying to push it. As a result, she thinks there’s still a lot to learn and benefit from these amazing cameras and traditional practices. She has a B.F.A. in Photography from S.U.N.Y. Purchase and is a former RayKo staff member.
Erika Gentry is an Imaging Artist and Educator, with an MFA from The School of Imaging Arts and Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She specializes in digital imaging, photography, and printing, and has been teaching at colleges and corporations since 1996. Gentry is a full-time professor at City College San Francisco. She has been an independent project director and consultant for Apple, Kodak, Business 2.0 Magazine, John Sperling’s The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro, and Colin Finlay’s Testify among others. Her personal projects explore issues of identity expressed through the use of technology and traditional media. She exhibits her art work nationally is an advisor to Lens Culture Magazine and Fotovision.org and is on the National Board of Directors for The Society for Photographic Education. (erikagentry.com)
Audrey Jones received her BFA in Photography at the University of Georgia in Athens. She has had multiple shows throughout Georgia and California. After graduating, she worked in New York City in various photography studios and businesses. Since moving to the Bay Area she has been teaching various photography classes at a studio in the East Bay, as well running its facilities. She also coordinates the classes at RayKo and is one of RayKo’s Darkroom staff members. She is currently working on a project documenting residents living on the Oakland waterfront.
Sam Manera is a practicing Artist who is currently attending the San Francisco Art Institute. Sam’s mediums of choice include: Film/Video, Photography, Kinetic sculpture, and Interactive Media installations. He specializes in alternative techniques and mixing of mediums. Sam’s work has been displayed in several galleries in San Francisco and Marfa, Texas, as well as a Video Arts show in Moscow, Russia.
Luis Mendoza is a photojournalist/lifestyle photographer based in San Francisco. Luis has been working in and studying photography for the last 12 years. He’s also currently a facility technician, lab attendant, and printer at RayKo.
Mia Nakano is a self-described artist, activist, and technology consultant. Nakano has honed her skills working on documentary projects in China, Japan, Nepal, and the US. The intent behind her images are to create visual commentaries on race, gender, sexuality, and the environment with a politicized lens. As freelancer, arts organizations, progressive media, and non-profits are her communities of choice. Her client list includes Hyphen Magazine, Mother Jones, Curve Magazine, Colorlines Magazine, Asian American Dance Performances, Women’s Initiative Fund, and the Applied Research Center. Mia is passionate about creating social justice through media, and equally as passionate about cooking and eating. Oh, and she’s also the Co-Director and Digital Manager of RayKo. (mianakano.com | obamahopesanddreams.com | visibilityproject.org)
Meghann Riepenhoff earned her BFA in Photography from the University of Georgia and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Riepenhoff has lectured with The San Francisco Photo Alliance, The San Francisco Art Institute, The Headlands Center for Research, and has hosted workshops on the value of photography for at-risk youth. She exhibits on both coasts and abroad, and recently had a solo exhibition at IDEAL in Calgary, following a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Riepenhoff was featured in the HOME catalog published by Root Division in San Francisco and in El Petit Journal in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, received the Ann Bremer Memorial Artists’ Book Award, and was honorably mentioned in the Paul Sack Photography Competition. She is the studio assistant and bookbinder for Michael Light Studios and teaches at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Unai San Martin was born 1964 in the Basque country, Spain, into a family with a long tradition of artisans and gun makers. His father’s book collecting inspired Unai’s interest in fields related to books publishing, printmaking and photography. San Martin began his artistic endeavors as a painter, and lived in the south of Spain during his military service. His first solo show in was France, and he exhibited colorful, abstract paintings inspired by the light of Seville. In 1989, San Martin moved to London, where he made his first prints, etchings and woodcuts. After being introduced to photography, he attended the Pratt Institute in NYC. Shortly after, San Martin moved to Madrid to work as a printer and plate-maker. In 1998 he relocated to the SF Bay Area. He is a working artist, teacher, printer, and plate-maker for many artists. His work is represented in many museums and collections, such as Museo Reina Sofia of Madrid, Spain, and in 2002 he won the national printmaking competition in Spain.
Barry Umstead is proud of his distinction of being the oldest instructor at RayKo. While it’s not true that he was Louis Daguerre’s kindergarten teacher, he has studied with someone who studied with someone who studied with W. Eugene Smith. He has been making black and white photographs since most of his students were knee-high to a grasshopper. After all these years, he is still truly, madly, deeply in love with the art form and is dedicated to spreading his love far and wide.
Cody Williams’ photographic interests are centered around environmental science and social issues, though his identity and work are not bound by any classification. Born in Seattle, Washington as the child of a Naval Engineer, Cody moved around much through his youth and developed an insatiable curiosity in the world around him both visually and theoretically. His wanderlust has led him to over thirty countries and territories with camera in hand. He recently returned to San Francisco after completing a Master’s in photojournalism at the Spéos Institute of Photography in Paris, France. Cody is now one of RayKo’s staff members working in both the darkroom and digital lab and is excited about future collaborations.
PAST INSTRUCTORS
Mary Celojko is the Darkroom Manager/Co-Director of the RayKo Photo Center as well as a Lab Supervisor at City College of San Francisco’s Photography Department. She received a BFA in Photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art with an emphasis in Color Photography. She has been actively working in the photography field, and her work has been exhibited regularly for 10 years.
Jeanne Hauser has been studying photography for over 10 years and has been a RayKo Intern for 4 years. She is a member of the City Art Gallery in San Francisco and shows her work regularly there. She is currently working on a project photographing San Francisco city landmarks and favorite places using a Holga plastic camera.
Pablo Haz has always been fascinated with art, even as a child. His interest and creativity ultimately led him to earn a BFA from CSU Hayward and he went on to a graduate program at Ohio State University. After studying graphic design, he embarked on a long professional career in design and illustration in the publishing field. He continues to work on design and illustration projects on a freelance basis. Pablo also teachs art classes, in both traditional and digital media, at Diablo Valley College and San Ramon Valley College.
Ann Jastrab, MFA, is a fine art photographer, master printer and teacher. She has traveled the world, photographing, writing and teaching everything from photography to physics and biology (in Swedish of all languages!). Ann works with large format photography and traditional black and white materials as well as non-silver processes and historical techniques. Her photographs are primarily self-portraits and portraits that explore relationships and all their intricacies. She is currently splitting her time between San Francisco, where she works as the gallery director at Rayko Photo Center, and Los Angeles where she is printing vintage negatives for the Motion Picture Academy. Ann also teaches photography courses at the Maine Photographic Workshops.
Hiroyo Kaneko is a photographer currently based in San Francisco, CA. She was born in Aomori, Japan, received her M.F.A. from the SF Art Institute and a B.A. in French Literature from Maiji Gakuin University, Tokyo. Her work has been exhibited extensively in the U.S. and Japan at spaces including the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and the San Francisco MoMA. Kaneko is a recipient of the Santa Fe Prize for Photography 2009 and honorably mentioned in an International Photo Competition Celebrating En Foco’s 35th Anniversary, 2009.
Colleen Mulvey holds a BFA in photography from The College of St. Rose in Albany NY and a MFA in Printmaking from the SF Art Institute. She makes work in a variety of mediaa, using the photographic image as a conceptual starting point. Her work has been shown at CEPA Gallery in Buffalo NY, The Opalka Gallery in Albany NY, The Annex in NYC, and Red Ink Studios in San Francisco. Her work has also recently been published in Zyzzyva, Volume XXIII, No. 1. Colleen’s recent work employs the digital negative to create multi-layered, alternative process compositions.
Heather Perin is a graduate of Sonoma State University with a Fine Art degree in Photography. She has worked in the professional photography industry for over ten years helping photographers learn, adapt and continually deliver the highest quality of imagery. She decided to pursue her passion of creating images and opened Retromatic Studio in 2005, which specializes in wedding, portrait and fashion photography.
Kira Sugarman-Shemano is a working/exhibiting photographer and educator living in San Francisco, California. She studied photography at the International Center of Photography, NYC and received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. She worked as a Museum Educator at the International Center of Photography and is currently working with the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Kira has worked as an educator of youth and adults at organizations like, Out of Site, Wornick Jewish Day School, Turtle Rock Institute, RayKo Photo Center and the JCC San Francisco. Teaching keeps her engaged and inspired. Her work has been included in numerous group shows in New York City and San Francisco.
John Torrente began his career as an overnight outreach worker, scouring Manhattan and the five boroughs of New York City for runaways and other youth living on the street. After a year living and working in San Francisco, he grabbed his camera and backpack and set out to photograph the people of the world. For the past decade he has been living around the globe, conceptualizing and producing humanitarian photography projects. He has worked with the Chinese Cultural Center in Beijing, the Landless Farmers Movement in Brazil, families of tsunami victims in India, earthquake survivors in Peru and a host of other groups. He is just back from Oaxaca, Mexico where he put together a book about his photographs and the stories that surround them.