Midwest Chapter ConferenceSpeakers

Jared Thorne's practice examines how identity is constructed through race, class, gender, history, and representation. His photographs consider the ways power shapes visibility, belonging, and the stories we tell about ourselves and one another. Working through spaces, objects, institutions, and cultural markers, Thorne explores how identity and class are performed, inherited, and negotiated. Moving between presence and absence, documentation and interpretation, his work challenges singular narratives and embraces the contradictions, complexities, and multiplicity of lived experience.

Jared Thorne holds a BA in English Literature from Dartmouth College and an MFA from Columbia University, following studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. He is an Associate Professor of Art at The Ohio State University, where he serves as Head of the Photography Area. Prior to joining the OSU faculty, Thorne taught at Stellenbosch Academy, the University of Cape Town, and City Varsity in South Africa. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions.

In 2025, Thorne was awarded the Aminah Robinson Fellowship by the Columbus Museum of Art. In 2026, he exhibited his long-term project 26 Planned Parenthoods at Weston Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is currently completing his first monograph, expanding on his decade long investigation of reproductive healthcare, place, and American identity through the project.