Linda Wolf

Linda Wolf, (born March 17, 1950) is an American-born photographer and writer, and founder of the nonprofit organization Teen Talking Circles (originally the Daughters Sisters Project). She is the daughter of poet Barbara Wolf, and 1940's cinematographer Joe Wolf. Her photographs are housed in museums, libraries, and private collections internationally, including the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France; Le Zilvermuseum Het Sterckshof, Belgium; Le Musee Reatu, Arles, France, and the Photographic Center of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan. She currently lives and teaches between her home in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. and Mexico.^[1]

Wolf began her photography career as a teenager working with Fanny,^[2] one of the first all-girl rock bands to be signed by a major label, and became an official photographer for the Joe Cocker Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour (1970).^[3] From 1970-1975, she lived and studied in Provence, France, attending the Institute of American Universities, and L'Ecole Experimental Photographic.^[4] Her early photographic work in France focused on people and village life in the Vaucluse Mountains.^[5] Upon returning to the US, Wolf taught photography through the University of California at Los Angeles Extension, worked as a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Citywide Mural Project^[6] and became a founding member of the organization, Women in Photography International.^[7]

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Wolf created a public art project of bus bench murals consisting of photos of ordinary people sitting on bus benches. The photographs were placed on the sides of buses and the back of bus benches in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Oakland, CA, and Arles, France. The benches were conceived as a response to the dehumanizing effects of advertising,^[8][9][10] and were exhibited in numerous venues including the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie International Festival of Photography in Arles, France.^[11] She then developed the project, "L.A. Welcomes the World", a series of large-scale multicultural portraits of people presented on billboards throughout Los Angeles, for the 1984 Summer Olympics.^[12]

In 1984, she was chosen as one of one hundred international photographers to participate in the book project, “24 Hours in the Life of Los Angeles,”^[13] and was the featured guest on an episode of the KNBC/PBS series, “Talk About Pictures.”

Wolf went on to co-author three books also featuring her photography: Daughters of the Moon, Sisters of the Sun: Young Women and Mentors on the Transition to Womanhood;^[14] Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century; Stories from a New Generation of Activists;^[15] and Speaking and Listening From the Heart, The Art of Facilitating Teen Talking Circles^[16] and a documentary, I am a Full Woman, of women around the world.^[17] Wolf was a recipient of the Athena Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 1997.^[18]

Direct Action

Linda Wolf is an internationally recognized photographer and author. She is the co-author of Daughters of the Moon, Sisters of the Sun, which won the Athena Award for Excellence in Mentoring; Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century; and Speaking & Listening From the Heart. Wolf is the founder and executive director of Teen Talking Circles, and through TTC is a pioneer in the revival of the modern Talking Circle in the therapeutic movement. In 2006, through Teen Talking Circles, she became the recipient of a seven year AnJeL Fund Grant from the Rudolph Steiner Foundation.

Collections

• Robert Haas Collection, Los Angeles
• Stephen White Gallery, Los Angeles
• Bibliothèque Nationale de France
• Provinciaal Museum Sterckshof-Zilvercentrum, Antwerpen
• Musee Cantini, Marseille
• Musee Reatu, Arles
• Rencontres International de la Photographie, Arles
• Harborview Medical Center, Seattle

References