Jane Baldwin, an American artist and educator, uses photography, film and audio recordings to document her projects. Baldwin’s most recent project Kara Women Speak is a multi-sensory, immersive body of work about women, culture, human rights and the environmental issues that threaten the communities of Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley and Kenya’s Lake Turkana watershed. In 2005 – 2014, Baldwin traveled annually to the region to document women’s stories in their own voices.

Initially, Baldwin traveled to Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley as a photographer. Her advocacy for the human rights and environmental concerns of Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley and Kenya’s Lake Turkana watershed developed slowly and are based on her lived experiences in the field. These experiences became an entry into the issues and fate of the communities of the Omo River Valley and Lake Turkana watershed. The project has become an overlay of women’s stories told through photography, video, ambient sounds, and recorded interviews. Her goal has been to give Voice to the Voiceless, and reveal the humanity of the women and their communities whose stories of a living culture will one day disappear.

Baldwin has been able to provide additional opportunities for the women’s stories to be heard—stories of fear and concern about their future. Since 2014, she had continued to work on behalf of the indigenous people of the Omo River through museum exhibitions and collaborations with international NGOs.

Her work has been featured in selected exhibitions, publications, reviews, film festivals and online sites including PBS Learning Media, Global Oneness Project Lesson Plans, Teaching Inquiry Through the Study of Endangered Cultures; LensCulture; PeacePalace Library | Bibliothèque du Palais de la Paix; Washington Center for Photography, Washington DC; Washington Post, Washington DC; Center for Photographic Arts, Carmel, California; Women’s Oral History and Photographic Project, Sonoma, California; ServiceSpace, Awakin Call: Stories from Women and Displaced Natural Communities; Baldwin’s Notes from the Field: Ethiopia Omo River Valley, 2005-2014, Smithsonian Institution, Reclaiming the Edge, Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, DC; the 2016, Onassis Cultural Center, Antigone Now, #istandfor festival, New York, New York; and Vogue Italia, Photo Vogue Festival - Embracing Diversity, Milan, November 15-18, 2018; PhotoAlliance, A Day of Photo Books, San Francisco, California, February 2, 2019; 2020-2021, Extraction: Art on the edge of the Abyss (See NEWS for updates)

Baldwin is a founding board member of PhotoAlliance, San Francisco, California; 2012 - 2018, a former board member of International Rivers, Oakland, California; BA English Literature, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; photography, UC Berkeley, San Francisco campus. Baldwin resides in San Francisco, California.

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

2023 April 8 - June 18, Datz Museum of Art, group exhibition, Songs of the Sky, first exhibition of FRAME in 2023. Planned within this year’s larger theme of earth and air and within the boundary between the realms of abstraction and conception, Datz Collection. Seoul, South Korea

2022 March 7, Becoming Datz, D’Ark Room and D’front Space gallery, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, South Korea

2021 June 4, San Francisco Center of the Book: Reclamation: Artist’s Books on the Environment, San Francisco, CA

2021 April 4, Place and Beyond, D’ARK ROOM / D’Front Space, Seoul, South Korea
2019 April 28 - June 16, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, SONOMA MODERN CONTEMPORARY, Sonoma, CA, group exhibition 2018-2019 October 1 - January 6, Milan, Italy, Museo delle Culture (MUDEC) | If Only the River Remains to Speak, solo show in partnership with  the renowned Milanese art research group Studio Azzurro and Survival International, Milan, featured as part of MUDEC’S exhibition Future Geographies.  
2017-2018  Datz Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea | Resonant Voices, two-person show—Jane Baldwin and Lonnie Graham
2017   Eternal Journey, group show, Busan, South Korea
2015   Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Kara Women Speak | Stories from Women, a solo, multi-media exhibition of photography, oral histories, video and film, and ambient sounds of the Omo River Valley     

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021 June 4, San Francisco Center of the Book: Reclamation: Artist’s Books on the Environment, San Francisco, CA

2021 April 4, Place and beyond, D’ARK ROOM / D’Front Space, Seoul, South Korea
2013   Wild and Scenic Film Festival, Nevada City, CA
2004 Frames of Reference, Center of Photographic Art, Carmel, CA
1998 University of California, Berkeley Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997   Cast of Characters | Outdoor Portraiture, University of California, Berkeley Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1997   Gleaning Light | A Survey of Contemporary Pinhole Photography, Washington Center for Photography, Washington DC
1996   Gleaning Light | A Survey of Contemporary Pinhole Photography, Archives Gallery, Dallas, TX

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2020-2021 Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss, a multimedia, multi-venue, cross-border art intervention that will investigate extractive industry in all of its forms—from mining and drilling to the reckless exploitation of water, soil, trees, marine life, and other natural resources, by CODEX Foundation, Berkeley, CA.
2017   Magazine Gitz, vol. 9, Resonant Voices, Datz Press, Seoul South Korea, in the collection of the Bowes Art and Architecture Library | Stanford University, Stanford, CA
2017   Only the River Remains | Kara Women Speak, Datz Press, Seoul South Korea, artist book in the collection of the Bowes Art and Architecture Library | Stanford University, Stanford, CA
2016   ServiceSpace, Awakin Call: Stories from Women and Displaced Natural Communities
2015   (Pending Publication) Notes from the Field: Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley, 2005-2014, by Jane Baldwin, Smithsonian publication Urban Waterways Project, that serves as a companion piece to the Smithsonian exhibition, Reclaiming the Edge: Urban Waterways and Civic Engagement, Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum, DC.
2015   PBS Learning Media, Bringing Lesson Plans to the Classroom: In collaboration with Global Oneness Project.
2015   Cision CRWeb, Photo Essay About Communities In The Omo River Valley Of Ethiopia Premieres Online At Global Oneness Project Magazine.
2015   Global Oneness Project, Kara Women Speak, Lesson Plan of the Week: Celebrating Rivers | On the Verge of Displacement. 
2015   PBS Learning Media, Lesson Plan with Global Oneness Project
2014   International Rivers, A Changing Omo River Valley—Notes From the Field, by Jane Baldwin
2013   The Global Oneness Project Magazine, Notes from the Field. An on-line cover story featuring the photo-essay, Kara Women Speak | Stories from Women, with interview by Jane Baldwin. Selected as One of the Best of 2013 – A Year in Review.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS
2019 PhotoAlliance, A Day of Photo Books, February 2, 2019, San Francisco, California.
2017   Resonant Voices, Artists in Conversation: Artists Jane Baldwin and Lonnie Graham at the Datz Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea.  (Screenshot-2018-2-9 Datz Museum of Art - Datz Press News Letter Aug 2017-1.png)
2017   Artists Talk | Resonant Voices: Datz Press, Seoul, South Korea. The exhibition Resonant Voices, a collaboration between two artists, Jane Baldwin and Lonnie Graham, whose social documentary photography projects are ultimately directed toward the same story—the importance of preserving our world cultures. (Screenshot-2018-2-8 Datz Museum of Art - Resonant Voices)
2015   Audio Tour: A free audio guide of the Kara Women Speak exhibition at izi.Travel. On the App Store, download izi.Travel, go to ‘explore’ and search for Kara Women Speak, listen to the introduction, then select ‘content’ to hear the tour. Created by David Torgersen audio producer and Pamela Coddington app producer.
2015   Convergence: International Rivers Forum. Global leaders gathered at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art to speak about their work in China, Brazil, SE Asia, India and Africa to protect rivers and defend the rights of communities that depend on them. Moderated by Peter Bosshard, interim Executive Director of International Rivers, Berkeley, CA
2015   Artist in Conversation: Photographer Jane Baldwin and guest curator Anne Veh.  Anne and Jane in conversation about Baldwin’s ten-year relationship with the women of Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley and Kenya’s Lake Turkana, and of her intention to document and give voice to the people on the verge of displacement from their ancestral land and loss of their cultural identity.
2015   Pinching the Lifeline: The Human Impact of the Global Rush for Dwindling Natural Resources. SVMA, an NGO Forum on Women, Water, Land, and Human Rights, with Anuradha Mittal of the Oakland Institute; Muadi Mukenge of the Global Fund for Women; Lori Pottinger for International Rivers; and Stephen Corry of Survival International.  Moderated by David Bolling, Sonoma journalist and environmental activist, editor and publisher of Kopavi Productions-Valley of the Moon magazine.  
2015   Documentary Portrait: Photographers in conversation, SVMA, Jane Baldwin, Lonnie Graham and Laura Sackett. Moderated by guest curator Anne Veh. Lonnie Graham, Associate Professor of Visual Art Pennsylvania State University, artist, photographer and cultural activist, Laura Sackett, photographer, curator and Creative Director and partner in LensCulture, a leading photography online network and magazine.
2015   Defining Eyes: Great Women Photographers, Then and Now, lecture series by Anne Wickland. Conceived as a companion piece to the Kara Women Speak exhibition at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.
2012   Symposium—Kara Woman Speak, After Three Gorges Dam, What Have We Learned? Produced by International Rivers and sponsored by UC Berkeley Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.
2012   Measuring the Impact of Art that Acts, Center for the Arts, Nevada City, California.  In conversation, panel discussion hosted by Orion Magazine at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival.

FILM FESTIVALS AND SYMPOSIUMS
Kara Women Speak, a twelve minute photo-montage film that features the story of a young Kara woman expressing her concerns about the survival of her people, from the consequences of upriver, hydroelectric dam development. An official selection at the following film festivals and symposiums: 
2015   Sonoma International Film Festival, Sonoma, California
2015   ASU Human Rights Film Festival, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona
2014   San Francisco Film Salon, San Francisco, CA
2014   UNSPOKEN Human Rights Film Festival, Utica & Rome, New York
2014   Ethnografilm Festival, Paris, France.  Sponsored by the International Social Science Council in Paris (founded by UNESCO) and the Society for Social Studies of Science  
2014   Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival, Sarasota, Florida
Sponsored by the US National Committee for UN Women | United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
2014   Sarasota Film Festival, Sarasota Florida
2013   Wild and Scenic Film Festival, Nevada City, California
2012   The Loaner, Executive Producer, a short film, comedy satire about assumptions made of women who dine alone.  Official selection at Sonoma Valley International Film Festival, Montreal Festival des Film du Monde, International Shorts Film Festival, Mendocino Film Festival

MEDIA, ONLINE SITES
2019 Global Oneness Project, August 8,
2018 Vogue Italia, Photo Vogue Festival, Milan, Italy, November 15-18
2015   Sonoma, CA. News, Women Photographers bring Empathic Eyes to SVMA, lecture series by Ann Wiklund.
2015   Sonoma, CA. Press Democrat, SVMA hosts ecology panel, Pinching the Lifeline: the Human Impact of the Global Rush for Dwindling Resources, in coordination with Jane Baldwin’s exhibition Kara Women Speak
2015   Sonoma Valley Sun, Forum on Water, Land and Human Rights
2015   International Rivers, Berkeley, CA. Listening to Kara Women Speak: One Woman’s Journey to the Omo River, by Sarah Bardeen. 
2015   Sonoma Index Tribune, Voices to the Voiceless | East African Stories Come to Life in Kara Woman Speak at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.
2015   Global Research, New Matilda.com, The Global Land Grab: International Aid – A Smokescreen for Multinational Looting Nations’ Wealth | Giving With One Hand and Taking everything with the other.
2015   Sonoma, CA. Valley of the Moon Magazine, Top 12 things to do in the Valley of the Moon - Kara Women Speak Sonoma Valley Museum of Art Exhibit.
2015   News & Blogs | The Best South African Blogs, photo essay, Omo River and Kara Women Speak
2015   Eco Textiles | Issue No: 64 | December 2014 | January 2015, Sustainability, at What Cost? By Simon Ferrigno, freelance journalist, UK.  Eco Textile News...“has received disturbing information which links proposed new organic cotton projects in the Lower Omo Valley, southern Ethiopia, with land grabs, the removal of populations, and the destruction of biodiversity.”  
2014   The Eco Textile News, e-newsletter, Photo Story: Ethiopian Cotton and Land grabs. Organic cotton projects linked to land grabs. 
2013   Newswatch: National Geographic Fresh Water Initiative
2012   In conversation with Michael Stone, KVMR Radio, about threats to global river health with focus on Ethiopia’s Omo River and rivers in Patagonia.
2011   World Rivers Review Vol. 26 | No. 1 March 2011, International Rivers
2004 Monterey County Weekly, Carmel, California
1999   Pinhole Journal, Issue 41, vol. 15, No
1995   Washington Post, Washington DC, December 10

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2018   Youth in Arts, San Rafael, CA
2018   Jack London Museum, Glen Ellen, CA
2015   School outreach: Sonoma Academy; Sonoma Valley High School; The Presentation School, Sonoma, CA
2012   Women’s Oral History & Photographic Project, La Luz Center, Sonoma, CA