Keenan Newman | Photographer & Filmmaker

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I am inspired by magic, myth, folklore; by listening; by swirling rhythms that rattle and bend our lives; by passion that shouts with symphonies or silence. My background is documentary but my imagination drags me toward fiction. My heroes all found voice in the poetry of the land and I am learning that my roots are growing in that direction too. I grew up in a small town in the central valley of California, but I have lived in Santiago, Chile; Skåne, Sweden; and in a van in the Arctic Circle. I am a student of history and I plan to continue my studies by talking to strangers.

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SYRIA STREET | .GIF-based JOURNALISM for icrc

In 2016, Newman collaborated with visual artist Brandon Tauszik & the International Committee for the Red Cross to photograph a GIF-based journalism project called 'Syria Street.’ The goal of the project was to invite the world to listen to and learn from families living in conflict; families whose bravery, struggle and humanity are too often reduced to statistics. Newman worked alongside the leadership of mothers, children, shop-owners and community organizers living near Syria Street: one road that connects & divides a decades-long conflict in Tripoli, Lebanon.

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newtok, alaska | cinematographer | feature length documentary film

The Yup’ik village of Newtok, Alaska is sinking into the arctic mud due to warming weather, thawing permafrost and increasingly intense coastal erosion. Research suggests that the village will be swallowed by the adjacent Ninglick river as soon as 2025. In 2019, Newman spent 6-months in Newtok working as a cinematographer alongside Yup’ik leadership, Producer Marie Meade (a Yup’ik tradition bearer and Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks) and film directors Michael Kirby Smith & Andrew Burton to film a feature-length documentary following the story of Newtok’s struggle against the acute impact of climate change. The film premiered at DocNYC in 2021.

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“road on a ledge” | photo journalism

“Road on a Ledge” is an ongoing independent photo journalism project documenting the Corniche Distrcit in Beirut, Lebanon. The project shares intimate images of vitality, struggle, joy, heartbreak, love, conflict and potential – all anchored in one powerful beacon of peace: a promenade in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon.