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Tema Stauffer

@temastauffer

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Art & Design @etsu
Official Instagram of East Tennessee State University’s Art and Design Department
BA • BFA • MFA

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“Kaleidoscope: Art & Design,” bringing together work by ETSU faculty, opened tonight at Tipton-Ashe Gallery near downtown Johnson City. The group show was curated by our very own @amber.farley and is on view through October 30. taken in ETSU Department of Art & Design by @temastauffer

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9 days ago

Thank you to @maudeclay for joining our Intermediate Photography class this morning from Boulder, CO, where she and her husband, Langdon, are visiting their son. I had the great pleasure of meeting Maude and Langdon last June at their home in Sumner, MS, a town of about 278 residents. Maude spoke (in her gorgeous voice) about the images in her forthcoming book, The Beautiful World, with an introduction by @wreubanks, whose work focuses on the American South. The book unfolds the last 10-15 years of her landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. She said she feels like an archivist, capturing what places in the Delta, which now might be gone, looked like at moments in time. Maude lived in New York City for thirteen years and took pictures there, but she returned home to Mississippi, where the land and people define her later work. Graveyards, churches, cars, fences, trailers, doorways, boats, bridges, dogs, kudzu, magnolia trees, and wisteria caught her eye off rural roads. She revisited sites in different seasons, much like William Christenberry did with places in Hale County, Alabama. As someone “who doesn’t like to get up in the morning,” she shot a few photographs in early hours; most were shot in the magical last fifteen minutes of light, just before afternoon becomes evening. She also photographed the decaying remnants of Byrant’s Grocery in Money, MA, where Emmett Till was accused of whistling at a white woman, and Graball Landing at the Tallahatchie River near Glenora, where the body of the 14-year-old was recovered after he was abducted, beaten, and murdered by white men in a barn. His open-casket funeral in Chicago after his brutalized body was returned on a train catalyzed the Civil Rights Movement. Her portraits depict friends, family, strangers, and especially photographers, like her cousin Bill, @susanvirginiaworsham, Sally Mann, and @langclay (in one, shooting a stubborn rat hiding behind their stove). Among her photographs of objects in domestic spaces, beauty parlors, and abandoned schools is a piece of loot from photographer Christian Patterson’s collection of artifacts from the Gong Co., a deserted Chinese American grocery store in Merigold, MS. taken in ETSU Department of Art & Design by @temastauffer

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11 days ago

5+5: TEMA STAUFFER - This fall, we’re happy to include Tema Stauffer among the presenting artists in our upcoming 5+5 slideshow series, kicking off October 6.

Tema’s work traces what history leaves behind in the American landscape. Her first book, “Upstate,” documents the industrial legacy of Hudson, New York, and her second, “Southern Fiction,” follows the literary legacy of the American South. In her current project, “Wonderlands,” Tema’s camera focuses on tourism, religion, and folklore in Southern Appalachia. These series have been exhibited widely at museums, galleries, and universities throughout the South. Tema teaches photography at East Tennessee State University.

In her slideshow, Tema will share five photographs by other photographers that have influenced her, and five of her own that have been pivotal in her creative journey, offering insight into how she thinks about photography.

@temastauffer presents online on Tuesday, October 20, 6:30-7:30pm ET. 5+5 Slideshows start on October 6.

Link in Bio to learn more about our Fall ‘26 event series, our guest photographers, and how to subscribe.

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Link in Bio to sign up for our Substack newsletter for updates on events, educational opportunities, and the PhotoPhlo app, now in beta.

 Fall ‘26 Events Guest Artists:
 @maureendrennen
@thomas_holton_photography
@elinorcarucci
@jlangerphotos
@screenlives
@temastauffer
@qianamestrich
@stacymehrfar
@matthew.baum
@charlestraub
@oliverblank

#PhotoPhlo #PhotoEducation #PhotoCommunity #PhotoLecture #PhotoPhloApp by @temastauffer

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13 days ago

Thank you to @gewuerfel for joining ETSU’s Intermediate Photography course today from New York City. Gesche and I both have German ancestry, have lived in NYC and North Carolina, and work with the same gallery, @traceymorgangallery. Gesche was born in Germany; she received an M.A. in Photography and Urban Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London (UK) and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where my father taught sociology in the late 60s and early 70s. Her work has been exhibited at museums and galleries internationally, including the Tate Modern, David Zwirner, ICP, MIT, and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. She moved to NYC in 2010 with her husband, who is a professor, and during their apartment search, created a series of photographs documenting urban basements, titled “Basement Sanctuaries” (Schilt Publishing, 2014). She developed another series portraying WW II concentration, labor, and death camps in Germany and Poland. “Oppressive Architecture” examines structures used to oppress groups. Her subsequent series, “Slave Dwellings,” similarly looks at plantations in the American South as sites of oppression and cruelty. Her mother-in-law, who is African American, commented that she saw all trees in the South as “lynching trees,” which inspired Gesche to photograph trees “as silent witnesses to these events.” She photographed and interviewed Holocaust survivors in 2018-19, presented in “What Remains of the Day - Memories of WW II.” During the pandemic, she made lumen prints, such as one that records 135 rolls of toilet paper. She published her second book of photographs, “The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall,” and her recent projects have focused on climate change and ICE detention centers in the United States, using screen captures of Google Street View. taken in ETSU Department of Art & Design by @temastauffer

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20 days ago

Sunday morning @slowexposures listening to a thoughtful conversation between @markcaceresphotos and @jimmy.nicholson.photographer and dropping by Pike County Chamber of Commerce for a pop up show of work by @yatesjoshua and @octaviasharpphotography. Thank you to everyone for a stimulating weekend in Georgia! taken in Pike County by @temastauffer

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21 days ago

Saturday at the Strickland Building @slowexposures taken in Concord, Georgia by @temastauffer

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21 days ago

taken in Zebulon, Georgia by @temastauffer

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21 days ago

Loved touring the home of @slowexposures volunteer, self-described Luddite, collector, archivist, and delightful treasure of a human being, Andrea Noel. We got to see her dollhouse, collection of letter openers, portraits of Frederick Douglas and Barack Obama, rotary phones, her mother’s urn, her library of books, dinosaurs and other wonders in her backyard, and a pop up photography exhibition in her garage. taken in Zebulon, Georgia by @temastauffer

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21 days ago

Thank you also to Chris Curry for hosting us at her gorgeous Split Oak Farm and for giving Anna and me a tour and to Dr. Dan Dunnahoo for letting me stay at his peaceful retreat in Zebulon. taken in Zebulon, Georgia by @temastauffer

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23 days ago

Thank you to @annanortonphoto and @slowexposures for inviting me down for deep dive into photography of the rural South in Concord and Zebulon this weekend. Congratulations to all of the amazing photographers who have work in the various spaces. What a treat to see your images! I’ll be speaking about my own work here at the Strickland building tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 19 at 5pm. taken in Concord, Georgia by @temastauffer

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23 days ago

As a northeastern-southeasterner from the Midwest, born in North Carolina in the seventies and back again full circle, I’m excited to be this year’s guest speaker at SlowExposures 2026 Photography Weekend @slowexposures in and around Concord and Zebulon, GA, celebrating photography of the contemporary, rural South. I will share projects completed during the nine years since I moved to the region in July 2017 for my teaching position at @etsuartanddesign @etsu.photo. I also look forward to seeing exhibits and friends in the photo community. My talk is on Saturday, Sept. 19 in the Strickland Building at 144 Main Street in Concord from 5-6 pm. Thank you to @annanortonphoto for the invitation. taken in Concord, Georgia by @temastauffer

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a month ago

Honored to join a group of North Carolina writers and artists who donated books in support of Democratic Congressional candidate @jamieagernc for District 11 and gathered with his community at his parents’ stunning 1834 home in Old’s Sherrill Inn at Hickory Nut Farms. I’m excited to elect an earnest and passionate candidate in November to represent Western NC who cares about people, history, ethics, land, animals, conservation, affordability, heath care, and ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene. Photographer @kenabbottphoto has beautifully documented this setting in his book, Useful Work, published by Goodson Press in 2015. I love the wrap-around porch, mountain views, and many farm dogs. Thank you to Jeff Kinzel @kinzeljeff and Diana Stoll @dcsletusgothen for helping to organize the event and for inviting me. taken in Fairview, North Carolina by @temastauffer

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a month ago