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K.B. Dixon

K.B. Dixon’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals. His most recent book, The Dogs of Doggerel: Irregular Poems was published in Fall 2025. The recipient of an OAC Individual Artist Fellowship Award, he is the winner of both the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Eric Hoffer Book Award. He is the author of seven novels: The Sum of His SyndromesAndrew (A to Z)A Painter’s LifeThe Ingram InterviewThe Photo AlbumNovel Ideas, and Notes as well as the essay collection Too True, Essays on Photography, and the short story collections, Artifacts, and My Desk and I. Examples of his photographic work may be found in private collections, juried exhibitions, online galleries, and at kbdixonimages.com.

Old Portland Hardware Redux: The Secret Life of Salvage

In the creative hodgepodge of a Sellwood store of practical things, finding grace and beauty in the pared-down shapes of the everyday tools of life.

Photo First: Authors, authors, everywhere

As the Portland Book Festival and its visiting writers move into high gear, photographer K.B. Dixon portrays 15 homegrown winners of Oregon Book Awards.

Halloween 2025: Scary enough for you?

Gargoyles, dragons, skeletons, ghouls, pirate skulls, scythe-swinging demons all around the town: Why, it's almost as alarming as what's going down in Washington, D.C.!

The Cultural Landscape: Part 24

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of best-selling author Cheryl Strayed, Portland Art Museum curator Lloyd DeWitt, artist & photographer Laura Domela, Orchestra Nova Northwest's Adam Eccleston, and poet & fiction writer Brittney Corrigan.

Photo First: Sing a Song of Sisters

The Central Oregon town becomes a musical feast for the ears with its annual Sisters Folk Festival Sept. 26-28. With a portfolio of images from around the town, photographer K.B. Dixon proves it's a feast for the eyes, too.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 23

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of playwright and performer Brianna Barrett, composer and musician Luke Wyland, journalist and essayist Katherine Cusumano, actor and director Ted Rooney, and scenic designer and visual artist Alex Meyer.

A photographers’ alphabet, A to Z

From "aperture" to "zoom lens" and 24 letters between, K.B. Dixon covers the alphabetical waterfront of the camera zealots' world.

Photo First: Sellwood Moreland’s Summerville Street Fair 

The Southeast Portland neighborhood celebrated summer in party mode on Saturday, and photographer K.B. Dixon wandered the streets capturing the mood of the festivities.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 22

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of composer and professor Freddy Vilches, author and editor Lee Montgomery, novelist and web developer Kevin Maloney, visual artist Brenda Mallory, and actor/teacher Phillip Ray Guevara.

Photo First: Old Portland Hardware

In Sellwood, a hidden museum of a store displays a wealth of oddities, antiques, and historically significant salvage, meticulously restored and artfully curated.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 21

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of actor & acting teacher Brooke Totman, glass artist Andy Paiko, poet Jennifer Perrine, writer Ferris Jabr, and musician Naomi LaViolette.

The Cultural Landscape: National Poetry Month

Photographer K.B. Dixon captures the visual light of Oregon poets Judith Barrington, Brian S. Ellis, Genevieve DeGuzman, Carlos Reyes, and Valerie Witte.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 20

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of choreographer Linda Austin, actor/director William (Bill) Earl Ray, visual artist Rebecca Boraz, novelist/translator Daniel Nieh, and Corrib Theatre artistic director Holly Griffith.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 19

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of theater director Brian Weaver, writer & filmmaker Perrin Kerns, writer & editor Rajesh K. Reddy, visual artist Jo Hamilton, and architectural preservationist William (Bill) Hawkins III.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 18

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of poet and memoirist Judith Barrington, theater leader Harrison Butler, painter Phyllis Trowbridge, jazz musician Ryan Meagher, and Literary Arts leader Amanda Bullock.

Cruising the city for ghouls and ghosts

Come Halloween season, Portland yards and front steps become a sprawling gallery of things dead and undead. Photographer K.B. Dixon tours the neighborhoods to collect the evidence.

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s sculpted screams

Trick and treat: Once the sculptor to Vienna's royal family, the 18th century artist's life and work took a turn to the macabre. For this tortured yet talented soul, every day became Halloween.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 17

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of animator & filmmaker Rose Bond, painter Chris Russell, composer Judy A. Rose, Mother Foucault’s Bookshop founder Craig Florence, and writer & editor Rachel King.

Cat With Nine Still Lives

Photographer K.B. Dixon poses a wooden English cat, "rescued" from The Shambles in York, in a multiple lifetimes' worth of catlike poses. Cat fanciers might find all of them familiar.

Arf! Celebrating the dog day of August

Time out for canines: August 26 is National Dog Day, and Portland pawses to pay homage to its own. K.B. Dixon and his camera scour the city to seek out our best friends in action.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 16

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of choreographer Jessica Wallenfels, visual artist Ryan Pierce, poet and book editor Valerie Witte, actor/director Isaac Lamb, and choral leader Katherine Fitzgibbon.

The Photographer’s Notes: A magic trick

How to make an image that rises above the ordinary? It's simple – and complicated, K.B. Dixon declares.

National Camera Day: It’s a snap

All right, much more than a snap. Photography is history and documentation, truth and illusion, high art and a creative tool for everyone. Celebrate its day on June 29.

Photo First: Milk Carton Boat Race

K.B. Dixon and his camera take in the wetness and the glory of Sunday's splashy race, a Rose Festival favorite since 1973.

Discovering the Portland Puppet Museum

Half-hidden behind trees in an 1880s Sellwood former grocery building, the museum is one of the few in the nation dedicated to preserving the art, history, and pleasures of all things puppetry.

Gordon’s Fireplace Shop: Questions

Eyesore or art? Landmark or blight? Photographer K.B. Dixon gets up close with the paintings and graffiti scrawls on an abandoned building that Portland's City Council has voted to foreclose on.

The Cultural Landscape: Part 15

Photographer K.B. Dixon continues his series of cultural profiles with portraits of visual artist Chris Chandler, Miller Foundation leader Carrie Hoops, Caldera leader Kimberly Howard Wade, and writers Evan Morgan Williams and Steven L. Moore.

‘Cocktails with George and Martha’

Review: Philip Gefter's book about Edward Albee's culture-shattering play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" tells the tale of how its movie version rocked the cinematic world, too.

Notes on Photographic Portraiture: In-Situ vs. In-Studio

Like fiction and nonfiction, photographic portraiture is divided into two approaches. Is one better than the other? How should a photographer (or a subject) choose? Must you choose?

Art review: Gabe Fernandez’ ‘Liminal Space’

The Portland painter's show at Russo Lee Gallery focuses on "the complex strangeness of quiet spaces" in the urban landscape.