info.
frankfrancawork@gmail.com
Frank Franca is a photographer, educator, and creative director whose work spans continents, disciplines, and decades. Born in Havana, he grew up and spent formative years in Cuba, Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom, all of which shaped his global perspective and creative voice.
He is the current recipient of the Pratt Institute Distinguished Teacher Award, presented at Radio City Music Hall on May 29th, 2025.
His photography has been published in Aperture, Artforum, Art in America, BOMB, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue (US & Germany), i-D, Vice, Marie Claire, W, Le Monde, The Guardian, and many others. His work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as Royal Festival Hall (London), Gitterman Gallery (NYC),),Studio Galleria (Budapest), the House of Photography (Hamburg), the Museum of Nonconformist Art (St. Petersburg), the International Center of Photography (ICP, NYC), Chicago Cultural Center, Candice Madey Gallery (New York), Bass Museum of Art (Miami Beach), the Contemporary Art Center (Cincinnati), amongst many others.
In 2022, Franca conceived, curated, and directed Shift, a photographic book project for the International Center of Photography. A personal editorial vision, Shift reflected global visual dialogues in a time of accelerated cultural, political, and technological change. The project brought together diverse international perspectives, tracing how shifting cultural contexts shape contemporary visual rhetorics. It was presented at the Miranda Galerie as part of Les Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles photo festival in France.
Franca’s curatorial work includes the 2017 exhibition New Photography by Young Americans at Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan, presented as a large-scale projection with Fondo Malerba per la Fotografia.
In 2015, he created #helloicp, a street level public art installation commissioned by the International Center of Photography. Installed across multiple ground floor vitrine display windows along the Bowery, the project transformed the façades into a global, real time interactive photo mural and online digital platform. Developed on Instagram, #helloicp connected photographers across borders, featuring contributors from scores of countries across six continents and encompassing more than 265,000 works in an ongoing, collective visual dialogue
Franca was a founding member of the Visual AIDS Artists’ Caucus, creators of the Red Ribbon, the now-universal symbol of AIDS awareness, and co-founded Electric Blanket alongside Nan Goldin, Allen Frame, and a few other friends. Conceived as a public street action and large-scale, photo-based slideshow, Electric Blanket addressed the AIDS crisis with urgency and visibility. A moving public art work, It has been projected on building facades in major pedestrian areas and exhibited as an installation internationally in museums including MoMA PS1 (NYC), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High Museum (Atlanta), and institutions in Japan, Germany, Norway, Russia, Canada, and the UK.
His work is cited in Andrew Wilson’s Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin and Rudi Bleys’s Images of Ambiente: Homotextuality and Latin American Art, 1810–Today amongst others.
Currently on faculty at Pratt Institute and the International Center of Photography, Franca has also taught or lectured at The School of Visual Arts, The Cooper Union, MARCO (Monterrey, Mx), Dumb Type (Tokyo & Kyoto), LCI (Mexico), Milch (London, Center for Contemporary Art (Kaliningrad), Toldi (Budapest) amongst others. He was a founding faculty member of ICP @ The Point in the Bronx, a program that received a President’s Committee on the Arts award, presented by First Lady Laura Bush at the White House.
A former London Correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily, Franca holds a BFA in Filmmaking from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. His creative projects have spanned multiple countries, including the US, UK, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Hungary, Argentina, Russia, Norway, and Japan.
He has also worked internationally as a lighting designer for the stage and a designer of exhibition installations.
Grants and fellowships include support from the Citizen’s Exchange Council, Open Society, ArtsLink, The British Council, PS122 Studio Program, and the Pratt Faculty Development Fund.
Franca Glacier in Antarctica is named after his father, Dr. Fernando E. Franca, an explorer, inventor, pilot, and physician.
He is fluent in English and Spanish.
frankfrancawork@gmail.com