Text and Photographs by K.B. DIXON
As with the portraits in the previous installments of this series, I have focused on the talented, dedicated, and creative people who have made significant contributions to the art, character, and culture of this city and state—in this case a graphic artist, a foundation director, a short-story writer, an arts organization director, and an essayist.
My aspirations have remained the same: to document the contemporary cultural landscape and to produce a decent photograph—a photograph that acknowledges the medium’s allegiance to reality and that preserves for myself and others a unique and honest sense of the subject.
The environmental details have been kept to a minimum. The subjects have the frame to themselves and do not compete with context for attention. This provides for a simpler, blunter, more intense encounter with character. It is character that animates the image.
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Chris Chandler

Chris Chandler is a letterpress and graphic-design artist. He traveled the world for more than 30 years as a tour manager and sound engineer for bands like Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse, learning the art of printmaking while on the road. In 1996 he purchased a 5,000-pound Vandercook proofing press and founded Neu Haus Press. His geometric, monotype relief prints feature Bauhaus and Constructivist influences. His work has been exhibited across the Pacific Northwest and nationally in New York City, Los Angeles, and Oklahoma. In 2021 he was the recipient of both the Mohawk Show Maker Grant and Stumptown Coffee’s Artist Fellowship. He is represented by the Elizabeth Leach Gallery.
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Carrie Hoops

Carrie Hoops is the Executive Director of The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation (Miller Foundation). For the past 32 years she has managed and led programs and fundraising efforts for Oregon nonprofit organizations spanning social services, statewide nonprofit associations, arts and culture, humanities, and education. She served for ten years at Literary Arts, first as Program/Development Director and then as Executive Director. In addition, she has served as Consultant, Interim Executive Director and permanent Executive Director for a wide range of local nonprofits including Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, The Armory Opening (home of Portland Center Stage), Portland Children’s Museum (Opal School), Oregon Council for the Humanities, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Artquake, and the Contemporary Dance Season at Portland State University. She has also served as the Executive Director of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon.
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Evan Morgan Williams

Evan Morgan Williams is an award-winning short-story writer and educator. He is the author of three story collections: Thorn, winner of Chandra Prize at BkMk; Canyons: Older Stories; and most recently Stories of the New West. He has published more than seventy-five stories in magazines such as Witness, Antioch Review, (The) Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and ZYZZYVA. His work has been anthologized in Best of the West 5 and MAKE X: A Decade of Literary Art. In 2024 he received an Oregon Literary Fellowship from Literary Arts.
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Kimberly Howard Wade

Kimberly Howard Wade is the Executive Director of Caldera, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing inclusive year-round arts and environmental programming for youths across the Portland region. Caldera was founded by Dan Wieden and his family in 1996 as an arts and environmental summer camp in the mountains, and has since transformed into year-round programming. Prior to being the Executive Director at Caldera, Wade served as Portland General Electric’s Director of Project Zero, providing grants and funding to arts, humanities, and heritage organizations at the Oregon Cultural Trust. She has also served as the Managing Director for Portland’s Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center and as the Education/Outreach Director for Artists Repertory Theatre.
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Steven L. Moore

Steven L. Moore is a memoirist and essayist. He is the author of The Longer We Were There: A Memoir of a Part-Time Soldier, which received an AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction and was translated into French. His newest book, The Distance from Slaughter County: Lessons from Flyover Country, is a collection of essays exploring pop culture, regional history, and the experience of being a coastal transplant from the Midwest. It was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His work has appeared in Kenyon Review online, The Georgia Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Ninth Letter, Entropy, Literature and the Arts, North American Review, Southeast Review, and DIAGRAM.
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EARLIER IN THE SERIES
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 14. Portraits of novelist Lydia Kiesling, actor Charles Grant, multidisciplinary artist Emily Ginsburg, photographer Thibault Roland, and writer/editor Margaret Malone.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 13. Portraits of jazz drummer Ron Steen, multimedia artist Pamela Chipman, musical-theater leader Sharon Maroney, filmmaker Jim Blashfield, and author and environmentalist Allison Cobb.
- The Cultural Landscape 12: Special Edition. Portraits of five trailblazing woman artists in Oregon: Lucinda Parker, Judy Cooke, Phyllis Yes, Sherrie Wolf, and Laura Ross-Paul.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 11. Portraits of visual artist Marie Watt, percussionist and musical conductor Niel DePonte, dancer and choreographer Oluyinka Akinjiola, poet and storyteller Brian S. Ellis, and actor/producer Lauren Bloom Hanover.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 10. Portraits of All Classical Radio President and CEO Suzanne Nance, poet Carlos Reyes, playwright and librettist Andrea Stolowitz, visual artist James Minden, and flutist and Aligned Artistry founder Amelia Lukas.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 9. Portraits of illustrator and educator Kate Bingaman-Burt, visual artist Dan Gluibizzi, novelist and nonfiction writer Cecily Wong, essayist and journalist Aaron Gilbreath, and choreographer and Oregon Ballet Theatre artistic director Dani Rowe.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 8. Portraits of writer and Portland Parks Foundation leader Randy Gragg, playwright/director/photographer Lava Alapai, mixed-media artist Erik Geschke, writer Erica Berry, and dancer/choreographer Samuel Hobbs.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 7. Portraits of singer/actor Susannah Mars, violinist Tomás Cotik, Native Arts and Culture Foundation leader Lulani Arquette, sculptor Ben Buswell, and artist, costume designer, choreographer, and filmmaker Fuchsia Lin.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 6. Portraits of Profile Theatre’s Josh Hecht, Pacific Northwest College of Art leader Jennifer (Jen) Cole, opera singer and teacher Hannah Penn, novelist Tony Ardizzone, and make-up, prop, and effects artist Christina Kortum.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 5. Portraits of musicians Marv and Rindy Ross, artist David Eckard, actor Maureen Porter, and writer Todd Schultz.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 4. Portraits of Oregon Symphony’s Scott Showalter, Renegade Opera’s Madeline Ross, theater leader Michael Mendelson, poet Genevieve DeGuzman, roots music legend Lloyd Jones.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 3. Portraits of Reser Center Executive Director Chris Ayzoukian, Shaking the Tree Theater Artistic Director Samantha Van Der Merwe, Oregon Public Broadcasting President and CEO Steve Bass, photographer and head of Pacific Northwest College of Art’s photography department Teresa Christiansen, choreographer and interim artistic director of Oregon Ballet Theatre Peter Franc.
- The Cultural Landscape: Part 2. Portraits of musician and composer Kenji Bunch, opera leader Priti Gandhi, actor and theater director Dan Murphy, contemporary art leader Victoria Frey, dancer and choreographer Shaun Keylock, landscape and urban design leader Zeljka C. Kekez, visual artist Barry Pelzner, poet and editor Susan Moore, musician and composer Cal Scott, writer and indie filmmaker Kelley Baker.
- The Cultural Landscape: 11 Portraits. Portaits of theater leader Marissa Wolf, musician Darrell Grant, museum film leader Amy Dotson, Red Door Project leader Kevin Jones, bookstore owner Emily Powell, philanthropist and art collector Jordan Schnitzer, visual artist Jef Gunn, actor and singer Ithica Tell, guitarist Scott Kritzer, publisher Rhonda Hughes, and poet John Beer.
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