ABOUT SAM

CONTACT

Sam is based in Los Angeles, CA

Connect directly: sam@samcomen.com

(310) 809-4247


ARTIST STATEMENT

Sam Comen’s socially-engaged photography fosters tolerance, empathy, and connection between disparate communities of people through vivid images that arrest our attention and expand our vision. His work interrogates our understanding of American identity, freedom, community, and the myth of the “American Dream” by drawing on the lived experience of immigrants, workers, and social justice advocates.

Comen’s mission is to create work that stops us in our tracks, reminding us of our shared humanity and rooting us in a collective experience.

To that end, in a world where audiences are inundated with images and attention is at a premium, Comen turns the rules of photography back-to-front and uses the toolset of his contemporary commercial work to document the lives of ordinary people. The result: portrait essays that present everyday Americans as icons, as deserving of a viewers’ attention as celebrities or captains of industry.

Comen uses the photographic tools and motifs honed in his years as a magazine portraitist to create striking images of people whose stories are often pushed to the margins. As he says, “I want my work to be scroll-stopping advertising for the people, the issues, the communities that matter.” Relationships are at the heart of Comen’s work, both the close-knit ties he forms with the people he photographs, and the bonds he builds with his audience. A lifelong Angeleno, he works to situate local realities in a national political context, treating his California work as a microcosm to investigate wider political narratives. Ultimately, Comen wants to drive greater understanding and connection between people from disparate communities, both within California and far beyond.

Photography is a vital tool to connect with audiences, Comen says, because he believes everyone steeped in our shared visual culture speaks the language of photography. “It’s our lingua franca,” he says. His photography mines that shared language, using it to subvert our collective expectations around power and class, creating space for new stories to be told. Comen is keenly aware of the privileges he enjoys as a white man, and the privilege inherent in working as a documentary photographer. His approach deliberately eschews the dominant tradition of extractive ‘drive-by’ photography. Comen instead partners with

community-based-groups like labor unions, immigrant rights advocacy groups, and governmental social service providers to make work that stands as both art and advocacy. Those partnerships, often developed over years, inform a deeper, nuanced understanding of the political forces at play for the community members Comen photographs. Comen starts every shoot by bringing his subjects into the project’s thesis, centering them in the exploration, and honoring them as subject matter experts. Comen treats each portrait sitting as a collaboration, bringing to bear his expertise as a photographer and artist while leaving ample space for his subjects to contribute their input –through pose, attitude, tone– to their portrayal.

Typically, Comen caps the process by sharing the resulting imagery with each subject and incorporating the subjects’ thoughts and reflections alongside the finished image. Where relevant, Comen also shares the finished imagery with the civil society and activist organizations that partnered with him, to be used as visual strategy tools in the group’s outreach work. In each project his intention is a library of powerful imagery that helps drive impact in the community.

Comen’s work has been twice exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery; is held in the permanent collections of The Library of Congress and LACMA (The Los Angeles County Museum of Art;) has been commissioned by brands and foundations internationally; and has been published by many outlets including Rolling Stone, Esquire, Wired, People, and The New York Times.

ABOUT SAM

“Comen is best known for his environmental portrait essays that feature evocative California locales. As a documentary photographer, he has long focused on themes of American identity, community-building, immigration, democracy, and social justice.”

—TaÍna Caragol, National Portrait Gallery, Curator of Painting and Sculpture and Latino Art and History

VIDEOS ABOUT SAM & HIS WORK

EXHIBITIONS

Our Pico; solo exhibition, City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, Annenberg Community Beach House, curator Naomi Okuyama, (2024)

Working America; solo touring exhibition, Exhibits USA/Mid-America Arts Alliance, director Kathy Dowell, touring nationally (2022-2027)

The Longest Shift; solo exhibition, Museum of Art & History (MOAH), director Andi Campognone, curator Robert Benitez, Lancaster, CA (2022)

Golden Hour: California Photography from LACMA; group exhibition, LACMA in partnership with Lancaster Museum of Art & History, Riverside Art Museum, Vincent Price Art Museum, and Cal State Northridge. Curator Eve Schillo (2022)

Working America; solo public art video exhibition, Downtown L.A.’s Grand Park, director Julia Diamond, Los Angeles, CA (2021)

The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today; 2nd Prize Winner, group exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, curator Taína Caragol, Washington, DC (2019) Nat’l exhibition tour through 2022.

The Newest Americans; solo touring exhibition, The California Museum, curator Amanda Meeker, Sacramento, CA (2018.) Nat’l exhibition tour through late 2021.

The Sweat of Their Face: Portraying American Workers; group exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, curator Dorothy Moss, Washington, DC (2018)

The Future of LA;  group exhibition, Grand Park, curator Maren Levinson, Los Angeles, CA (2018)

Portraits of Compassion, three artist show, presented by California Community Foundation, Plaza De Cultura y Artes, Los Angeles, CA (2016)

Both Sides of Sunset: Photographing LA, group exhibition, Kopeikin Galley, Culver City, CA (2015)

Manifest Justice, group show, organized by Yosi Sergant, presented by Amnesty Int'l, Los Angeles, CA (2015)

The Valley/El Valle, group show, San Francisco City Hall, curator Ann Jastrab, presented by the San Francisco Arts Commission (2014)

Kern County at a Distance, three artist show, Bakersfield Museum of Art, curator Vikki Cruz (2014)

Passing Through, L.A. Union Station 75th Anniversary, public lightbox installation, commissioned by L.A. County MTA (2014)

Critical Mass, group show, Corden|Potts Gallery, curator Jessica Johnston of George Eastman House, San Francisco, CA (2013)

Central Avenue: A Community Album, solo show, Central Avenue Jazz Festival, Los Angeles, CA (2012)

28 at 28, solo exhibition, NextSpace LA, Culver City, CA (2011)

A Place in the Sun, group show, Month of Photo LA, curator Audrey Landreth, Los Angeles, CA (2011)

SELECTED PRESS

Morgan Baskin, “‘The Longest Shift’ Highlights Essential Workers Who Kept Los Angeles Running” Fast Company (2022)

Eline Gordts, “The Longest Shift: portraits of the people holding Los Angeles together.” The Guardian (2021)

Eve Schillo, “Happy Days & Golden Hours are Here Again” LACMA Unframed (2021)

“Rites Disrupted: LA’s Class of 2020 Graduates In A Tumultuous Time” KPCC/LAist (2021)

WRCO Radio Morning Show, “The Newest Americans” WRCO.com (2021)

Kate Bubacz, “Here’s What The Working Class Thinks About America” BuzzFeedNews.com (2020)

Andrea Michelson, “This Year’s Outwin Winners Challenge the Norms of Portraiture” SmithsonianMag.com (2019)

Hayley Fox, “The Newest Americans Highlights Immigrant Stories in the Age of Trump” GoodMagazine.com (2018)

Michelle Miller, “The Sweat of Their Face: Portraits of workers” CBS Sunday Morning (2018)

Shana Nys Dambrot, “The Newest Americans” Vice.com (2017)

Carolina A. Miranda, “Can you capture LA’s complexity in a photo book?” Los Angeles Times (2015)

Mark Sitko, “Manifest: Justice Examines Social Inequality Through Art” Los Angeles Magazine (2015)

“Valley Edition,” live radio interview with Joe Moore on KVPR, Central California NPR (2014)

Sam Whiting, “Newly found '75 Cesar Chavez photo highlights heartland show,” SF Gate (2014)

Camille Gavin, ”Of Luck and Lost Hills at BMoA,” The Bakersfield Californian (2014)

Miranda Whitworth, “Found in Lost Hills: Struggle, but Also Joy,” The Bakersfield Californian (2013)

Cindy Y. Rodriguez, “Undocumented Youth: A Dream Deferred,” CNN Photos (2013)

Adam McCauley, “Bridging Eras: Photographer Sam Comen’s…Lost Hills” TIME’s LightBox (2013)

Shana Nys Dambrot, “Skid Row and Central Avenue’s Culture-Based Activism,” KCET Artbound (2012)

Jeff Zuschlag, “Photographer of the Week,” Resource Magazine(2012)

Veronica Villafañe, “Photo Retrospective…Central Avenue,” USC Annenberg Intersections South LA(2012)

Caitlin Shamberg, “Photographs: Central Avenue 1940s to Present,” KCRW Which Way LA?  (2012)

James Brasuell, “Exploring Central-Adams from 1940s to Today,” Curbed LA(2012)

José Martinez, “Weeklong photo exhibition to shine spotlight on Central Avenue,” KPCC On Central(2012)

Aline Smithson, “Sam Comen,” Lenscratch (2011)

Bryan Formhals, “28 at 28: An Ongoing Annual Portrait Series,” La Pura Vida (2011)

SELECTED CLIENTS

72andSunny, Airbnb, AOL Music, Billboard, Businessweek, Canon, Comcast, COMPLEX, DETAILS, Distro, Dreamworks, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Fast Company, Fortune, Garnier, Glamour, GREY, Hewlett-Packard, Huffington, Inc., K Swiss, Latina Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, Los Angeles Department of Transportation, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, MTV, Maxim, Men's Health, Money, Newsweek, Nylon, Oakley, Paramount Pictures, People, Proctor & Gamble, Psychology Today, Publicis North America, Quick + Simple, Rolling Stone, TIME, TV Land, TeamOne, The Hollywood Reporter, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TruTV, Variety, VICE, WIRED.