Books
A Christmas Carol - For Publication
Balancing Acts
The Day of the Locust
In Nevada
Bio and Contact Info
Lucy Gray grew up outside Detroit. There was a round barn next to her house that had been abandoned for years. The only thing in it was a black carriage that had once been drawn by horses. Gray drove that buggy in an imaginary world. When she went to school she turned her private thoughts into performances on stage. At Dartmouth College she studied film and European literature. She became a radio talk show host. She moved west and worked in the movie business. Then she wrote about it for magazines and then she had children and changed careers to become a photographer. She was represented by the Jernigan Wicker Fine Art Gallery for ten years at which time she also ran a family portraiture business. She became an early vlogger with a show called Lucy Talks Movies. For ten years she programmed and lectured about movies to private film clubs. She was taking stills all these years and the movies informed her work so that she made stories with words and pictures in Being Blue and Leda and the Goose. She started a business called Red Letter Editions for which she makes small runs of books out of people's lives for them to leave to future generations who will never know them otherwise. She is writing a book as a photographer which is called "Virginia Woolf and Other Embarrassing Women."
Gray's book is "Balancing Acts: Three Prima Ballerinas Becoming Mothers" which received international reviews, prizes and is in the collection at the deYoung Museum. Her artist's edition of Nathanael West's "The Day of the Locust" is in special collections in the Legion of Honor and the Getty Museums. The Berkeley Art Museum has in their collections her series “Dorothea Lange’s Footsteps: Foreclosure in the Central Valley in 2008.” She has had photographs published in The Cut, The New York Times, Mother Jones, The Independent, Elle, Time Lightbox, El Pais,Corriera della Sera, Republica, The Sunday Times among others. Two recent published articles by her can be read in Alta and American Theater Magazine.
A hallmark of her achievements has been in experimenting with exhibition spaces. Her Name the Homeless was made for the nave at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco at Christmas when 50,000 people visited. Eight of the thirty people photographed got jobs. Yale University invited a showing of the pictures. The Governor of Connecticut heard Gray give a talk there and brought the show to the State House. Exhibitions of “Balancing Acts” were shown at the San Francisco Public Library, Stanford University’s Institute on Women and Gender and at the Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C. Other remarkable exhibitions include the montages she made with the actress Tilda Swinton that were projected onto the north and south faces of City Hall for a week during the Film Festival in San Francisco. In 2013 she made the beautiful short film, Genevieve Goes Boating, narrated by Swinton, that is a child's vision of family crisis. It was in Filmstruck's top ten best that year. It played for nearly three years continuously in the lobby of Building C in Fort Mason where 2 million people visit each year. Meanwhile, the film traveled throughout India in children’s schools. It was bookended there with screenings at national festivals in Mumbai.
Lucy Gray lives and works in San Francisco.
Email: lucygrayphotography@me.com
BALANCING ACTS
PUBLICATION
Civilization Magazine, Shanghai China, April 2021, pg 134-151
Princeton Architectural Press, Balancing Acts: Three Prima Ballerinas Becoming Mothers, Foreword by Hilton Als, March 2015
Brick Magazine, On a Dancer’s Life, Summer 2003
Backstage, San Francisco Ballet, Winter 2002
Callboard Magazine, October 2002; November 2002
International Art Exposition Catalogue, Mark Morris Choreographing, San Francisco 2000
PRESS
National Endowment for the Arts Radio Washington DC, 2017 Read More.
Twenty6 Magazine, Issue L, July 2017 Read More.
Time Lightbox, March 14, 2016 Read More.
Refinery 29, March 29, 2016 Read More.
Quartz, March 17, 2016 Read More.
Dance Magazine April 2004; January 2007; 2015
Corriere della Sera, Italy, September 2015
The Vision Times, June 15, 2015 Read More.
Boost, June 5, 2015
El Pais, Spain, May 19, 2015
Ninemsn Coach, Australia, May 13, 2015
San Francisco Ballet Backstage Magazine, 2002; Fall 2015
Page Turners, June 18, 2015
SELF, May 10, 2015 Read More.
Real Simple, May 8, 2015
Dance Spirit, May 8, 2015 Read More.
New York Magazine: The cut, May 8, 2015 Read More.
Goodreads, May 6, 2015
The New Fillmore, May 2015 Read More.
Huff Post Parents, April 29, 2015 Read More.
Flickr.com, April 24, 2015 Read More.
BUST Magazine, April 17, 2015 Read More.
KWMR Radio Point Reyes Station, April 14, 2015
Slate magazine, March 20, 2015 Read More.
San Jose Mercury News, March 15, 2015
Daily Mail, March 14, 2015
San Francisco Chronicle, March 10, 2015
SFGate, March 9, 2015
Mommikin, March 31, 2015 Read More.
San Francisco Chronicle, March 6, 2015 Read More.
Republica, Italy, March 2015
Theater Bay Area, March/April 2015
Design Taxi, February 23, 2015
ELLE, February 18, 2015 Read more.
The Stanford Daily Volume 227, Issue 44, 21 April 2005
KZSU-FM Stanford University, April 2005
The Sunday Times, Baby Steps, April 6, 2003
ARCHIPELAGO. 11. Vol. 5, No. 3 Autumn 2001
EXHIBITIONS
American Embassy, Warsaw, Poland, May 2022 – May 2025
Harvey Milk Photography Center, San Francisco May 9 – June 7, 2016
Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C., 2008
Prada Gallery, Washington, D.C. 2006
Maryland Art Place, with catalogue, Baltimore September 19 – October 21, 2006
Stanford University, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, 2005
San Francisco Public Library, January/February 2004
Jernigan/ Wicker Fine Art, Paris, France 2003
San Francisco Ballet, Katita, Dressing Room after Prodigal Son, 2001
ARCHIPELAGO. 11. Vol. 5, No. 3 Autumn 2001
International Art Exposition, Mark Morris Choreographing, San Francisco 2000
San Francisco Ballet, 2000
San Francisco Movie Theaters, Short Film by Victoria Stewart, Lucy Gray, A Portrait: Making Balancing Acts 2000
LECTURES
San Francisco Public Library, November 14, 2017
San Francisco Philosophical Society, May 7, 2016
Diane Middlebrook Salon San Francisco, February 21, 2016
San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary, December 3, 2015
The Image Flow Marin, September 24, 2015
Metropolitan Club San Francisco, April 29, 2015
Stanford University, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Palo Alto April 8, 2005
Sacred Heart Academy San Francisco, May 2005
AWARDS
22 Best Photo Books of 2015, Fast Company
Silver Medal, Best Book, One Eyeland 2015
Nominee Black and White Spider Awards, After Mother and Son Dance Nutcracker Ballet 2015
Nominee Black & White Spider Awards, Before Mother and Son Dance Nutcracker Ballet 2015
Nominee Black & White Spider Awards, Rehearsing at San Francisco Ballet 2015
GRANTS AND GIFTS
Jamie and Philip Bowles; David Packard; Anonymous
COLLECTIONS
DeYoung Museum, San Francisco Fine Arts
SWINTON CONSTELLATION
PUBLICATION
Archipelago.org, Big Tilda’s to music by Greil Marcus, 2007-Present
Brick Magazine, Honor at the Stairs, Cover, Spring 2007
Photo Review Magazine, Xavier’s Tour de Nairn, Honor at the Stairs, 2006
EXHIBITIONS
San Francisco International Film Festival, Big Tilda’s projected images City Hall, north and south faces, 2006
Audis Husar Fine Art Gallery, Tilda Swinton on Fire, Los Angeles, 2006
REVIEWS
artnet.com, Big Tilda by David D’Arcy, 2006 Read more
PRIZES AND AWARDS
Fine Art Nominee International Color Awards, Her Blue Hills 2018
Winner, Photography 2007, b.j. spoke gallery, Honor at the Stairs, New York City
Winner, Photography 2007, b.j. spoke gallery, Xavier’s Tour de Nairn, New York City
Winner, Photography 2007, b.j. spoke gallery, Daddy’s Shoes, New York City
Winner, Somerset Art Association Annual Exhibition Contest, Honor at the Stairs, New Jersey 2006, National Portrait Gallery London Curator’s Choice, International Color Awards, Honor at the Stairs 2006
Winner, The Photo Review Competition Issue, Xavier’s Tour de Nairn 2005
Exhibition, Pro Arts Gallery Annual Competition, Celebrity, Oakland 2005
Winner, Women in Photography International Contest, Honor at the Stairs 2005
GIFTS AND GRANTS
Max Palevsky, Anonymous
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST
PUBLICATION
Arion Press, Artist’s Edition, foreword by David Thomson, 2013
Brick 92, selected images, Winter 2014
EXHIBITIONS
Mechanic’s Institute Library, Dramatic reading with Photographs, directed by, San Francisco January 22, 2014
International Fine Print Dealers Association, New York City October 25 – 28, 2013
GRANTS AND GIFTS
Holly Goldberg Sloan and Gary Rosen, Billy Weber, Barbara Katz
COLLECTIONS
Achenbach Collection, Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; Special Collection, Getty Museum Research Institute Library
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
William and Margaret Hearst III; Philip and Jamie Bowles; Shaari Ergas; Holly Goldberg Sloan and Gary Rosen
TANGO ME CLOSE
EXHIBITION
Mechanics Institute Library, San Francisco, 2002
Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, 2001
GOD AND CHANCE
PUBLICATION
Alfred A. Knopf, In Nevada: The Land, The People, God and Chance by David Thomson, 1999
EXHIBITIONS
Jernigan/Wicker Fine Art, San Francisco 1999
GRANTS AND GIFTS
Maurice Kanbar
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Alicia Hammarskjold, William and Margaret Hearts III
NAME THE HOMELESS
PRESS / TELEVISION
Archipelago.org, 2000 Read More.
Archipelago.org, Susan Garett, 2000 Read More.
KRON-TV NBC, Thanksgiving Tribute, November 1998
KPIX-TV CBS, MacMoment: Dave McElhatton: Lucy Gray Making Naming the Homeless,
November 1998
KRON-TV NBC, Bay Area Backroads, December 1998
San Francisco Chronicle, Karen Salter, December 1998
LECTURES
Yale University New Haven Connecticut City Hall 2000
City College of San Francisco February 22, 1999
EXHIBITIONS
Connecticut State House, Hartford Connecticut November 2000
Yale University, New Haven Connecticut City Hall September 2000
Institute for Unpopular Culture San Francisco January 2000
Archipelago.org Vol. 14-1 2000
City Hall San Francisco, August – September 1999
Jernigan Wicker Fine Art, San Francisco June 1999
Grace Cathedral San Francisco December 1998
GRANTS AND GIFTS
Architects and H`eroes, Pamela and Ernesto Aguirre, Chris Arguedas, Katherine Berkeley, William and Wynn Burkett, The Clarion Group, Coach, Karen Crow, Susan and Paul DeMuro, Maureen Murphy and David DiFrancesco, Nancy Murray and Jim Feuille, Terry Forman, Stephanie and Dick Fredericks, Gwen and Sandy Garrett, Lynne Hale, Sherri and Michael Hudes, Susan Kilgore, Tony Kitz, MAC, Cyra McFadden, Elaine McKeon, Chris and Jim Marver, Celeste and Tony Meier, Stephanie and Bill Mellin, Eric Brondfield and Jane Melnick, Peggy Mitchell, Susan Moldaw, Alexis Neel, Heidi Norbeck, Margaret O’Leary, Inc., Todd Oppenheimer, Juliette Reilly, Rockefeller Philanthropic Collaborative, Richard and Barbara Rosenberg, Penelope Rowlands, Randy Fink Sahae, San Francisco Foundation, Donor Advised Funds; Schultz Foundation, Brian and Katrina Sherer, Joe and Lori Sherer, Paul and Jennifer Sherer, Sam and Elise Sherer, Raymond McGrath and Karen Snell, Spago, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Stone, Jaimie Sanford and Ted Storey, Temple Emanu-El Rabbis’ Philanthropy Fund, Tuffy’s Hopscotch, Gretchen Voorhees, Kay Kimpton and Sandy Walker, Amy Nathan and Warren Weber, Lizzy Weber, Rachel French Weber, Lynn and Peter Wendell, Ann and Mark Weinstock, Shirley and Scott Wilson, Windfall Foundation
PRIVATE COLLECTION
Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP
CENTRAL VALLEY FORECLOSURE
PUBLICATION
Mother Jones Magazine, 18 Months of hearings, 700 Witnesses – and Barely a Single Homeowner by Marilyn Snell, January 2011 Read More.
COLLECTION
Berkeley Art Museum
KEEP CHRISTMAS WELL
PUBLICATION
L’Oeil de la Photographie, Trying to Tell the Story, March 30, 2017
EXHIBITIONS
Lobby, 117 West 123rd Street, Harlem, 11/2017 – 1/2018
AWARDS
Winner, 2017,”Trying to Tell the Story,” International Color Awards, Los Angeles, Fine Art Nominee
Winner 2017,”Dressing for the Dance,” International Color Awards, Los Angeles, Fine Art Nominee
GRANTS AND GIFTS
Lili Anolik, Kathy Bole, Francis Bowes, Jamie Bowles, Leslie Walker Burlock, Alison Carlson, Margaret Charnas, Penny Coulter, Christine Cuccia, Karen and John Diefenbach, Carol and John Field, Anne Fredericks and Marc Fasteau, Carole Shorenstein Hays, William and Margaret Hearst, Martha Kropf, Chris Meledandri, Karen Meyerhoff, Jane Reed and Larry Reed, Sue Rugtiv, Holly Goldberg Sloan and Gary Rosen, Dianne Weaver and Sebastiano Scarampi
BEING BLUE
PUBLICATION
Ambit Magazine, London, thirty-six panels, November 2021, pg 17 – 32
AWARD
Art Winner 2021, (first ever) Ambit Magazine, London
LEDA AND THE GOOSE
LEDA AND THE GOOSE
Winner, International Color Awards, Birdsong (Untitled 1), Los Angeles, California, Fine Art Nominee 2021
Winner, International Color Awards, Birdsong (Untitled 2), Los Angeles, California, Fine Art Nominee 2021
THE CLASH
PUBLICATION
Berlin Film Festival, 2010
Telluride Film Festival, 2002, 2006, 2007
“Tangled Up in Blue” Series, Pilot Title Sequence, ABC-TV, 2003/04
The New York Times, Anthony Minghella and Walter Murch cutting The Talented Mr. Ripley, December 19, 1999
Independent on Sunday, Anthony Minghella and Walter Murch cutting The Talented Mr. Ripley, December 1999
LET THE DEVIL TAKE ME
PUBLICATION
Communication Arts Magazine: Photography Annual, 1996
EXHIBITIONS
Jernigan/ Wicker Fine Art, Paris, France, 2003
Jernigan/Wicker Fine Art, San Francisco, Early Work, March 3 – April 4, 1998
Anita Seipp Gallery, Palo Alto, Early Work, 1997
Plano ArtCentre, TX, Early Work, July 2 – August 2, 1997
AWARDS
Winner, New Photography Competition, Millard Sheets Gallery, Los Angeles 2000
National Jury’s Choice, Advertising Photographers of America,Taxi!, Los Angeles 1996
Award of Excellence, Communication Arts: Photography Annual, Taxi! 1996
COLLECTIONS
Thomas V. Meyer Fine Art
THEY THINK I’M FROM MARS
PUBLICATION
The New Fillmore, A Moment in Time, January 2, 2018
Lucy Talks Movies, Red Without Blue: Mark and Claire Farley, Vlog, June 24, 2007
MEDIA STILLS
“Strange Fruit”, Documentary Directed by Lynn Hershman-Leeson, 2006
“American Inventor”, ABC-TV, 2006
“Dancing with the Stars”, ABC-TV, 2006
“Tangled Up in Blue” TV Series Pilot, Title Sequence, ABC-TV, 2003/04
EDUCATION
Master Class, Tanya Habjouqa, SF Camerawork, 2019
Master Class, Richard Sands, Aperture, New York City, 2017
Master Class, Michael Kenna, San Francisco Art Institute, 1999
Bachelors Degree with concentrations in European Literature and Film, Dartmouth College, University of New Hampshire, Special Degree Program, 1979