Overview
Christopher Sims was born in Michigan and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He has an undergraduate degree in history from Duke University, a master’s degree in visual communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a M.F.A. in studio art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He worked as a photo archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and in communications for a number of non-profit organizations. He is an Associate Professor of the Practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy and in the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, both at Duke University. At Duke he also teaches in the Duke-in-Berlin summer program and in the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts graduate program.
His recent exhibitions include shows at SF Camerawork, Cambridge University, the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art, and the North Carolina Museum of Art. His project on Guantanamo Bay was featured in The Washington Post, the BBC World Service, Roll Call, and Flavorwire. He was selected as the recipient of the Baum Award for Emerging American Photographers in 2010, chosen as one of the "new Superstars of Southern Art" by the Oxford American magazine in 2012, awarded the Arte Laguna Prize in Photographic Art in 2015, and named an Archie Green Fellow at the U.S. Library of Congress in 2017.
His recent exhibitions include shows at SF Camerawork, Cambridge University, the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art, and the North Carolina Museum of Art. His project on Guantanamo Bay was featured in The Washington Post, the BBC World Service, Roll Call, and Flavorwire. He was selected as the recipient of the Baum Award for Emerging American Photographers in 2010, chosen as one of the "new Superstars of Southern Art" by the Oxford American magazine in 2012, awarded the Arte Laguna Prize in Photographic Art in 2015, and named an Archie Green Fellow at the U.S. Library of Congress in 2017.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Associate Professor of the Practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy
·
2021 - Present
Sanford School of Public Policy
Director of the Center for Documentary Studies
·
2024 - Present
Center for Documentary Studies,
University Institutes and Centers
Certificate Director in the Center for Documentary Studies
·
2024 - Present
Center for Documentary Studies,
University Institutes and Centers
Associate Professor of the Practice of Art, Art History and Visual Studies
·
2022 - Present
Art, Art History & Visual Studies,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Publications
The Pretend Villages: Inside the U.S. Military Training Grounds
Book · May 21, 2021 CiteImagens Resolutivas
Book · 2021 CiteRecent Artistic Works
Cover photo for "Pinelandia: An Anthropology and Field Poetics of War and Empire." By Nomi Stone. Oakland, CA: University of California Press
Photograph January 1, 2022"Capturing the City." tête. Berlin, Germany
Exhibit January 1, 2016Shock Room
Film January 1, 2015View All Artistic Works
Education, Training & Certifications
Maryland Institute College of Art ·
2008
M.F.A.