Arlene Collins is a New York City based photographer specialising in documenting remote cultures and changing civilizations around the world.

Since 2000 she has produced and lead international photography workshops to destinations such as Papua New Guinea, Iran, Kamchatka, Russia, Greenland, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. She also lectures at home and abroad and consults privately with a number of clients on location lighting and how to photograph in the most challenging lighting situations.

Collins recently co-curated the Second Image of the Silk Road Photography Biennial of Tianshui, China, where she exhibited photographs from her travels along the Silk Road and participated in symposiums discussing her work and current photography issues. She has lectured and taught workshops in Lahore, Pakistan, at ROSPHOTO the Russian State Museum of Photography in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Centro de la Imagen, in Mexico City, the Fototeca Center in Havana, Cuba, the Istanbul Center of Photography, Turkey, the Three Shadows Center for Art and Photography in Beijing, China, and in Yangon, Myanmar. 

She has created several long-term photography essays, including Boxing photographed in New York City, Moscow and Bangkok, and essays on the Rodeo in New Jersey, the Voodoo trail in Togo and Benin in Western Africa, Chernobyl’s #4 nuclear reactor and the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine, The Birqash Camel (Souq al- Gamaal) Market in Cairo, and A Hamer Bull Jumping Ceremony in the Southern Omo Valley, Ethiopia. She continues her international travels adding to her ongoing photographic essay on “UNESCO-designated” World Heritage Sites. Her photographs from North Korea were featured on L’Oeil de la Photographie.com and presented at New York Photo Salon. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York and the Brooklyn Museum. 

In New York City she has taught in the Photojournalism and Documentary Program at the International Center of Photography and for 11 years produced and led ICP’s international travel photography workshops. Presently, she is an Associate Professor of Photography at Parsons School of Design.

For more of Arlene's work, visit her website.  Also, follow Arlene on Instagram.