Jim Lommasson

Artist Statement

Since 2010 I've been working on collaborative storytelling photo+writing projects with refugees and genocide survivors. The written photograph in the Members show comes from “What I Carry: A collaborative photo+writing storytelling project with Portland’s Unhoused Community”

These photo/writings serve as powerful reminders that any of us could find ourselves in need of shelter, should only a few circumstances in our lives shift. Through the process of personal storytelling with object/photographs with the participants’ handwriting gives voice to the those who are rarely heard, and to illuminate the resilience and humanity behind each object – and the person carrying it.

Artist Bio

Jim Lommasson is a freelance photographer and storyteller based in Portland. He a recipient of the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize from The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Lommasson's ongoing collaborative storytelling projects: What We Carried: Fragments and Memories from the Cradle of Civilization was exhibited at the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration in 2018. Stories of Survival and Remembrance: A Call to Action for Genocide Prevention was exhibited at the United Nations Headquarters in 2023.

The photograph in the Members show is part of What I Carry: a collaborative photo+writing storytelling project with Portland’s Street Community.

Clyde Dogg, 2025