BIOGRAPHY
Sternbach received her BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and a MA from New York University and International Center of Photography in 1987, where she taught for over a decade. She is an advisory board member and founding faculty at Penumbra Foundation in NYC, where she teaches wet plate collodion. Joni Sternbach lives and works in New York City.
Sternbach uses both large format film and early photographic processes to explore the present day landscape and to make environmental portraits. Her work centers on our relationship with water, contrasting some of the most desolate deserts in the American West to iconic surf beaches around the world.
Sternbach's work is held in many international and public collections including the National Portrait Gallery in London, Joslyn Museum, MOCA Jacksonville, Nelson Atkins Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She is the recipient of several grants including NYFA and CAPS and Santo Foundation. Sternbach recently released the self-published monograph Surfboard, which was exhibited June 2021 with Black Box Projects in London.
COLLECTIONS
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida
Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY
MOCA, Jacksonville, FL
National Portrait Gallery, London
Peabody Essex Museum
J.P. Morgan Chase
SF MoMA
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Maison Européenne de la Photographie. Paris, France
Museum of Photographic Arts. San Diego
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
The Cleveland Museum of Art
St. Louis Art Museum
University of Texas At Austin. Harry Ransom Center
Bibliotheque Nationale. Paris, France
International Center of Photography
Center for Photography. Woodstock, NY
Light Work. Syracuse, NY
Polaroid International Collection
Victoria and Albert Museum National Art Library
Tate Museum of Art Library Collection
Los Angeles County Museum of Art