Kathryn Mayo grew up in rural central Alabama. Influenced by her experience of living on a large soybean and cattle farm, her photography is often autobiographical in nature with an emphasis on storytelling, superstitions, and girlhood. Reaching beyond the realms of “straight” photography and venturing into installation, antique and alternative processes, Kathryn’s work frequently explores the idea of identity and often incorporates sound, found materials, fabric, and objects. 

Kathryn attended the University of Alabama, earning a B.F.A. with a concentration in Photography where she studied under Gay Burke, the “mother” of Alabama Art Photography. She earned an M.F.A. from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2001.  

Kathryn has been teaching photography at the college level since 2000. She recently completed a sabbatical where she temporarily relocated to her hometown of Selma, Alabama to work on her latest body of work, We Are Selma: The Selma Portrait Project. 

Kathryn is the 2017 recipient of the Alabama Artist Award from the Huntsville Museum of Art, a 2011 finalist and 2018 honorable mention award winner for the Julia Margaret Cameron Award and a 2018 PhotoLucida Critical Mass Top 50 Artist. Her work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally and is in several international permanent collections.