Board

Justin A. Carney (Programming Committee) uses autobiographical photography to question how death and grief affect familial connections — the bonds that keep a family together and cause them to separate, and how those bonds shape an individual.

Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Carney was awarded first place in the Single Image category of LensCulture’s 2023 Art Photography Awards. He is a recipient of the Reva Shiner Memorial Award in the 2022 National Society of Arts and Letters Competition and Exhibition and the Best in Show Award in the 2020 Emerging Vision: Biennial Student Show at the Colorado Photographic Art Center. Carney’s work has been exhibited nationally and abroad, including in China, South Korea, London, and Spain.

Carney received his MFA in Photography from Indiana University, Bloomington in 2023. He was an instructor at Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis and is currently Assistant Professor of Photography at Colorado State University.

Carrie Cooper (President) is an entrepreneur, artist, curator, and facilitator of all things creative. Her influence spans across multiple states and time zones: she has worked as Finance and Operations Manager as well as Teaching Artist at Hyde Park Art Center, board member and volunteer coordinator for Ithaca Underground (Ithaca, NY), and initiator and curator of exhibitions and events at her own Dark Matter Coffee (DMC). As an owner and Chief of People Operations at DMC, Carrie focused on the intersections between staff, customers, artists, musicians, vendors, and investors—viewing them as collaborators in a larger network of intersecting communities.

Carrie currently serves on the board of Experimental Sound Studio and on the Residency Committee for Terrain Exhibitions. Carrie is an accomplished artist and has shown her work around the United States. Her works in photography, video, and sound explore the spectrum of social connectivity and isolation that emerges from popular media, as well as natural spaces that blur the lines between intimacy and introspection. She is cofounder of a:c print projects, a collaborative artist book publishing project focused on the regenerative exchanges between artist, publisher, and collector.

Carrie is an alumna of Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis and is currently working on her PhD in American Studies with specific attention to the overlapping challenges to building sustainable and civic and community-minded business models in non- and for-profit sectors. In her free time she enjoys hiking, reading, making music, vegan cooking, and teaching yoga and swimming.

Mary Goodwin (Founder, Secretary) is the publisher at Waltz Books, a photobook publishing company with a focus on the relationship between the photographic image and the book format. Her photographic practice depicts the land as a site of memory, culture, and politics.

Goodwin holds an MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she also acquired a love of chilis, both red and green. Her writing about photography has appeared in photoeye booklist, f-stop magazine, and the Contact Sheet Annual.

As the former Associate Director at Light Work in Syracuse, New York, she curated exhibitions by Deana Lawson, Yolanda del Amo, and Stephen Chalmers, among other artists. Mary loves to talk about photobooks, and she has led a series of book talks, with artists, publishers, and designers, for Aurora in addition to her curatorial and administrative duties.

Jeremy Hatch is a long-time Indianapolis resident, arts patron, and fundraising consultant with over 20 years arts management experience. He has provided ongoing strategic counsel to more than 40 cultural organizations around the United States over the past 10 years as Principal Consultant of Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc, an Indianapolis based consultancy focused on cultural organizations.

 Prior to becoming a fundraising consultant, he served as the Development Director for both the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel and Indiana University’s Eskenazi Museum of Art in Bloomington. Jeremy has been an Adjunct Faculty member in fundraising at Indiana University and has served on numerous non-profit boards including Indianapolis Fringe Festival, Bloomington Playwright’s Project, and the United Way of Monroe County. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Drama as well as a Master of Arts Administration, both from Indiana University.

 Jeremy’s family includes his spouse Dr. Courtney Hatch, Associate Dean of the Lacy School of Business at Butler University and their children Kate and Joey. The Hatch family enjoy collecting works on paper, attending concerts, and exploring Indianapolis.

Abigail Hedges (Treasurer) is a Tax Manager at Donovan CPAs, a respected local full-service accounting firm. With a specialization in not-for-profit taxation, she serves over 150 charitable organizations nationwide, alongside numerous local businesses and individuals. Abigail earned a BA in Accounting and Management from Taylor University and holds a CPA license from the State of Indiana.

Outside of her professional endeavors, Abigail cherishes quality time with family and friends, enjoying board games, watching TV, and exploring new culinary experiences. She often spends her weekends at the park and at home creating magnet tile masterpieces alongside her husband and son.

For a decade, Benjamin Martinkus (Programming Committee) has been a committed artist-educator, speaking about issues of representation and fostering critical discourse between student-artists and the communities they chose to serve.  Benjamin currently teaches in the Photo & Intermedia Program and the Herron School of Art and Design. 

Born and raised in the Midwest, his work in photography, video, sculpture, and performance engages the charged poetics of contemporary viewership. Benjamin holds an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has exhibited his work throughout the USA.

Benjamin loves old things, well-made food, and spending time with his wife and their four children.

Osamu James Nakagawa (Programming Committee) was born in New York City in 1962 and raised in Tokyo. He returned to the United States; moving to Houston, Texas, at the age of 15. He received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Houston in 1993. Currently, Mr. Nakagawa is the distinguished Professor and Ruth N. Halls Professor of Photography at Indiana University.

 Nakagawa is a recipient of the 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2010 Higashikawa New Photographer of the Year, and 2015 Sagamihara Photographer of the Year in Japan. Nakagawa’s work has been exhibited internationally, including From the Cave, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; 2019 Kyotographie, Eclipse＋ Kai: Osamu James Nakagawa, Gallery Sugata; Photography to End All Photography, Brandts Museum, Denmark; OKINAWA TRILOGY: Osamu James Nakagawa, Kyoto University of Art and Design; War/Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston;After Photoshop: Manipulated Photography in the Digital Age, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and others.

 His work is included in numerous collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; George Eastman Museum; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Sakima Art Museum, Okinawa; The Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and others. Nakagawa’s work appears in many international publications. Recently, his work was published in A World History of Photography 5th edition by Naomi Rosenblum, and A Shared Elegy: Emmet Gowin, Elijah Gowin, Takayuki Ogawa, Osamu James Nakagawa from Indiana University Press. Nakagawa’s monograph GAMA Caves is available from Akaaka Art Publisher in Tokyo, Japan.

Jacinda Russell (Programming Committee) is a conceptual artist working primarily in the mediums of photography, sculpture, installation, and bookmaking. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Texas Gallery, Houston Center for Photography, and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. She is the recipient of the DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award of the Arts Council of Indianapolis and the Photographic Arts Council / Los Angeles Research Fellowship at the Center for Creative Photography. Born in Idaho, she received her BFA from Boise State University in Studio Art and her MFA from the University of Arizona. Currently, she lives in Indianapolis and works as an Associate Professor of Art at Ball State University.

Ellise Antoinette Smith, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Division of Student Affairs, at IU Indianapolis, is originally from Detroit, Michigan. With a research focus on the experiences of bodies that identify as fat, and an interdisciplinary approach, Smith uses photography (#VisualActivism), podcasting, spoken word poetry, and social media as a catalyst to center these narratives. Smith has a M.S.Ed. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from Indiana University Bloomington and a B.S. in Healthcare Administration from Eastern Michigan University.

As a doctoral student in the Urban Education Studies program at IU Indianapolis, Smith dedicates her scholarship to creating celebratory spaces for the marginalized identities that she holds using frameworks such as Black Feminist Thought, Sense of Belonging, Intersectionality, and Critical Race Theory. She aims to ensure the work and narratives around bigger bodies are included in academia while challenging the dominant ideologies around body image acceptance.

Smith centers her work within the sector of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and she pulls from her experiences working with first-generation, low-income students, racial equity, and eradicating injustices for underrepresented populations. Recently, Smith received the 2024 ELEVATE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advocate of the Year Award Presented by Eli Lilly from the United Way of Central Indiana.

Sarah Pfohl is a disabled, chronically ill artist and teacher. She makes work about the value, power, and complexity of: a rural New York hill, the disabled body, and classroom teaching. Sarah runs the photo and art education areas in the Department of Art & Design at the University of Indianapolis. Sarah served on the Aurora PhotoCenter board, and as a member of the Aurora Programming Committee, from August 2021 to December 2022.

Adam Reynolds (Co-Founder) is a documentary photographer whose work focuses on contemporary political conflict, with a particular emphasis on the Middle East. He pursues research projects that balancer photographic creativity with a journalist’s thematic fidelity. He holds a Masters of Fine Art degree in photography from Indiana University. He began his career covering the Middle East in 2007 as a freelance photojournalist. Adam holds undergraduate degrees in journalism and political science from Indiana University and a master’s degree in Islamic and Middle East Studies from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Adam left the Aurora board in February 2021.

Craig McCormick (Co-Founder) is an architect and photographer with a passion for art and design. He is a Principal at Blackline Studio for Architecture, founder of procurement and maker company Co+Effect, and creator of MarshallStudios.net. Craig has led events including Pecha Kucha Indy and boards for arts organizations including Harrison Center for the Arts, Big Car, and Pattern. Craig left the Aurora board in December 2020.