Julie Dermansky was born New York City in 1966 and grew up in Englewood NJ. She got a BFA from Sophie Newcomb (part of Tulane University). She has completed major public art projects for NYC's Percent for the Art's Program and shows in galleries and museums in America and Europe.
Dermansky switched her focus from painting and sculpture to photography in 2004. Her work has been published in the New York Times, The Tulanian, the Armenian Reporter and Imagine LA.
She has been working on a series about Dark Tourism including genocide memorials and sites of historic blight. Currently she is developing a project utilizing Tulane’s Natural History Collections that will combine her post-Katrina series with her work on natural history and anthropology within a natural history context.
The Chicago Field Museum has incorporated aspects of her project in their show Called “Nature Unleashed that opened in May 2008 and will travel to eight other natural history museums. Dermansky has ialso been documenting the Louisiana National Guard at work. She published a book called “Under the Radar” after spending several weeks riding along with them.
Dermansky was awarded an NEA fast track grant for her work at the Everhart Museum and is a Thomas J. Watson Fellow . She was recently named an Affiliate Scholar at Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights.
Her photo assignments have taken her to Rwanda, Rhodesia, Cambodia, Laos and the war torn regions of Eastern Europe.
