Jeffrey Whetstone

Place: Chattanooga

Born: 1968

Biography:

Jeffrey Whetstone is an American artist born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1968. He is a professor and chair of photography at Princeton University in New Jersey. Whetstone received a BS in zoology from Duke University in Durham and an MFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is known for his photographs and films that imagine America through the lenses of anthropology and mythology. His work often explores the relationship between humans and their environment, drawing from his background in zoology. Whetstone's Post-Pleistocene series, for example, illuminates the depths of wild caves in Alabama, while his New Wilderness series examines the human experience in rural America. In 2008, Whetstone was awarded the Factor Prize for Southern Art, which recognizes an artist whose work contributes to a new understanding of the South. His work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and is held in various public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.