Keri Pickett

Filmmaker, Photographer & Author

Keri Pickett is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, author and artist. Most well known as a photographer, her career started in 1983 when legendary NYC Village Voice Director of Photography Fred McDarrah gave Pickett an internship at the newspaper, where she worked until the late 80’s when she left NYC, returning to MN due to a diagnosis of Burkitt’s lymphoma cancer. During her two years of chemotherapy she turned to photographing children who were coping with a life-threatening illness. She received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Bush Foundation Fellowship for this work.

Over the decades a pattern emerged, confirming Pickett’s artistic interest in family and community in her documentation of life’s commonalities in disparate communities.

As a producer, director and cinematographer, her films have been nominated for a number of documentary feature film awards and she won Best MN Made Documentary Feature at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival and Best Feature Film from the Portland EcoFilm Fest.

Pickett’s films have screened at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, breaking records in attendance with First Daughter and the Black Snake. Her films have also been shown at the Napa Valley Film Festival, Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow and the Arizona International Film Festival, the Marfa Film Festival.

Pickett’s photographs are in International and National Museums and she has been awarded fellowships from the Bush Foundation, McKnight, Jerome and Target Foundations as well as the National Endowment for the Arts. Her pictures have appeared in Life, Time and People magazines as well as Stern and Geo.

In 2024 Pickett was the Cultural Envoy with the US State Department at the American Film Showcase 2024 Films for her documentary FINDING HER BEAT.

Pickett is a 2017 McKnight Foundation Fellow in Media Arts.

GRANTS & FELLOWSHIPS

  • 2018 McKnight Artist Fellowship in Media Arts
  • 2012 Minnesota Initiative Grant, public art project, One-night performance and installation of photographs in AIDS focused community care centers.
  • 1999 Minnesota 2000 Documentary Project, MN Historical Society
  • 1999 Jerome Foundation Grant to Aperture on behalf of FAERIES
  • 1998 McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship
  • 1992 Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship
  • 1992 McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship
  • 1992 Jerome Travel and Study Grant
  • 1992 COMPAS Community Art Program
  • 1991 Minnesota State Arts Board Grant
  • 1990 Jerome Foundation Grant
  • 1990 National Endowment for the Arts, Photography Fellowship
  • 1989 McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship

Awards

  • 2003 Silver Eye Center of Photography Honerable Mention 2000 Lambda Literary Award, Best Fine Art Book, FAERIES
  • 1996 Book Award, American Photography 12
  • 1994 Finalist, Friends of Photography, Ruttenbuerg Foundation Award for Portraiture
  • 1993 Nominated, Infinity Award, International Center of Photography
  • 1993 Outstanding Young Alumni Award, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, MN
  • 1992 Award of Excellence, Communication Arts Annual
  • 1992 UNESCO/Asian Cultural Society World Photo Contest : THE FAMILY
Keri Pickett hosts a one night performance of photography, video and the spoken word as part of a Minnesota State Arts Board Initiative Grant.
Rocky holding a photograph of Tea Leaf performance prior to a public installation at Clare Housing.
Chuck Peterson, Executive Director of Clare Housing.
Rocky holds a framed photograph while an audience member reads a randomly chosen text of Faerie.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

  • American Photo
  • Aperture Journal
  • Boston Globe
  • Das Magazin (Switzerland)
  • Der Speigel (Germany)
  • Geo (Germany and Russia)
  • Hunger Project
  • Life Magazine
  • Los Angeles Times
  • New York Times Magazine
  • Newsweek
  • People Magazine
  • Photo District News
  • Prentice Hall Press
  • Sports Illustrated Stern Magazine (Germany)
  • Tampa Tribune
  • U.S. News and World Report
  • Utne Reader
  • Village Voice Newspaper
  • Ziet Magazin (Germany)

SPEAKING & TEACHING

  • Numerous presentations as Key Note speaker for ice show reunions.
  • 2000 AAUW Speaker, St. Paul, MN
  • 1998 Keynote Speaker: Love in the 90s, 5th Annual Heartland Long-term Care Symposium, Kansas City, MO
  • 1997 Keynote Speaker: Love in the 90s, National Association of Medical Directors convention, San Antonio, TX
  • 1997 Photojournalism Workshop, Daytona Beach Community College, FL
  • 1996 Television Guest: Love in the 90s, Good Morning America
Keri Pickett, Pindaya Caves, Myanmar, 2014
Keri Pickett, Philadelphia, PA. Photo by Michal Daniel

Collections

  • Philadelphia Museum of Art, Michael E. Hoffman Tribute Collection, Philadelphia, PA Museet for Fotokunst, Permanent Collection, Odense, DK
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Permanent Collection, Houston, TX
  • Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Permanent Collection, Mpls., MN
  • Minnesota Historical Society, Permanent Collection, St. Paul, MN
  • Rourke Art Gallery, 1992 Purchase Award, Moorhead, MN
  • Woodstock Center of Photography, Woodstock, NY
  • Dain Rauscher, Corporate Collection, Minneapolis, MN
  • Trend Corporation, Corporate Collection, Minneapolis, MN
  • Winona State University, State of Minnesota Collection, Winona, MN
  • Doughterty, Dawkins, Strand and Bigelow, Inc., Corporate Collection, MN
  • Peter Hay Halpert, Private Collection, New York, NY
  • Bill Hunt, Private Collection, New York, NY
  • Michael Stipe, REM, Private Collection, Woodstock, NY
  • Horst Rechelbacher, Private Collection, Osceola, WI

Select Exhibitions

Group Shows
  • March 2020 WEISMAN ART MUSEUM, ART & SOUL: Indigenous, Rural and Urban HERstories Month, an exhibition curated by Amoke Kubat to coincide with Women’s History Month
  • Alumni Show, Minnesota State University, Moorhead, MN
  • Minnesota: Inside & Out, Exploring 100 Years of Art in Minnesota through the Rourke’s Permanent Collection
  • I’m Not Your Indian Anymore, A Photographic History of AIM, All My Relations Gallery, Mpls, MN
  • Minnesota 2000 Documentary Project: TEENAGERS 2000, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN
  • Deliruim, Ricco Maresco Gallery, New York City, NY
  • 1997 8″x10″: Contemporary American Photography
  • Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College/CUNY, Flushing, NY 1996
  • FOTOFEST: Discoveries of the Meetingplace
  • Eirie Ironworks, Houston, TX 1996
  • 20 Year Birthday Celebration of Blue Sky Gallery
  • Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR 1996
  • On Common Ground, American Dream Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY 1992, 1993
Solo Shows
  • Keri Pickett: Life and Love, Basilica of St. Mary, Mother Teresa Hall, Minneapolis, MN, 1993
  • Tibetan Portraits from The Kingdom of Lo and India
  • International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum, Oklahoma City, OK 1995
  • Tibetan Portraits from The Kingdom of Lo and India
  • Minneapolis Photographer’s Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 1995

  • Hennepin History Museum, July 7, 2023 – Spring 2025, Faraway Home:  Tibetans in Minnesota

Faeries
  • Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND 1999
  • McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowships Exhibition 1998
  • Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 1998
  • Tweed Museum, Duluth, MN 1998
Love in the 90s
  • Chilean Institute of Culture, Santiago, Chile 2000
  • Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL 1998
  • New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA 1998
  • Opolousas Museum of Art, Opolousas, LA 1998
  • NAFOTO, International Photography Festival, Sau Paulo, Brazil 1997
  • Photo Passage, Toronto, Canada 1997
  • International Photography Hall of Fame and Musuem, Oklahoma City, OK 1997
  • Jon Oulman Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 1994
Keri Pickett, photo by Michal Daniel.