Biography

Emily Kahn's (b. 1939, Baltimore, MD) photographs have been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Rose Art Museum (Brandeis University), the Photographic Resource Center (Boston University), and the Print Center in Philadelphia. Her work has been published in Art New England, DoubleTake, the Boston Globe, and the Boston Phoenix; it has also been seen in an Israeli publication on Boston.  

She has taught photography with Jim Dow at Tufts University, and she led a senior undergraduate seminar in documentary work at Harvard University for several seasons, under the mentorship of Robert Coles. Her studio is located in the Brickbottom Artists Building in Somerville, Massachusetts. 

She grew up on a farm on the outskirts of Charlottesville, Virginia, and in the city of Baltimore, moving back and forth between the two intermittently. Her father was a well-known scientist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize. Her mother was a principled woman who wrote unpublished stories. From her parents she inherited a curiosity for observation of human beings and their behavior.

Her grandmother and her aunt were her first photography teachers. From the age of eight her camera was with her at all times, but only in the last few years she felt free enough to make photography a central feature in her life. Photography enables her to express the internal truth that was hidden deep in her heart. Her work focuses on the story of her parents' and her family's lives, which became personal and clear, and sometimes even painful to her, as she carried out her work. Her work won her prestigious prizes from various museums across the United States.