Joni Sternbach was born in the Bronx, New York, and currently lives in Brooklyn. She is a visiting artist at The Cooper Union and faculty member at Penumbra Foundation in NYC, where she teaches wet plate collodion. Sternbach uses early photographic processes to create contemporary landscapes and environmental portraits. Her work centers on our relationship with water. Her long-term projects involve the pursuit and understanding of the Western landscape and the series Surfland, which captures portraits of surfers in tintype. Sternbach’s work is part of many international public collections including the NPG, London, MOCA Jacksonville, Nelson Atkins Museum, St Louis Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She is the recipient of several grants including NYFA and CAPS and the Santo Foundation. Her monograph, Surf Site Tin Type (pictured below) was published in 2015 and her latest, Surfboard in 2020.
