artist Bio
Ann Prochilo (American) is a photographic artist recently returned to San Francisco after six years in Malta. Her narrative-driven photographs explore dissonance, transition, and emergence.
Born into a large family on Long Island in New York, Prochilo is the chronological middle-child of six. Her vision and voice are shaped by a boisterous hierarchy of birth order and gender, musical theater, and public service.
Prochilo received a BA from Indiana University where she pursued dual interests in fine arts and medicine. She has had a wide-ranging career as midwife, HIV activist and founder of an advocacy relations agency. After years facilitating productive relationships between patient advocates and pharmaceutical companies, she returned to a full-time arts practice.
Prochilo’s This Is Water series was selected for 2023 Critical Mass Top 50. Her work has appeared in juried exhibitions in Germany, Spain, Hungary, Italy and England. In the United States, her images have been exhibited at The Center for Photographic Arts, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Los Angeles Center for Photography, Davis Orton Gallery, Texas Photographic Society, The Foley Gallery, Photo Place Gallery, Southeast Center for Photography, A. Smith Gallery, Praxis Gallery, Midwest Center for Photography, South X Southeast Gallery, and Xavier University Art Gallery. Prochilo’s work has been featured in Frames Magazine, Dek Unu Magazine, Dodho Magazine, Il Bizzilla (Air Malta inflight Magazine), Create! Magazine, and All About Photo.
Artist Statement
I am drawn to the discomfort and tension that precede transition and emergence — that moment before surrendering to sleep, or surfacing from deep waters.
Influenced by spending years in the HIV arena, I focus on holding space for conflict and collaboration in service to creation and change. As a visual artist, I see my role as that of midwife and mediator, exploring the 'in-between' places and forces that shape them. Family, memory, loss, identity and reconciliation are themes I use to explore dissonance as a tool for transformation.
I believe in the power of inviting questions and critical thinking. Living in an increasingly divided world, I want to make photographs that spark a universal experience of both the everyday and the momentous — images that ignite reflection of what is known, what is unknown and the fertile ground in between.