Ian Douglas: Instant Realness from Marin Media Lab on Vimeo.

Since 2006, Ian Douglas has been photographically documenting New York City’s contemporary dance and performance art scene, regularly working with artists like Ishmael Houston-Jones, Miguel Gutierrez, Yvonne Meyer, and others.

He is house photographer for New York Live Arts/Dance Theater Workshop, photographer-in-residence for Danspace Project and Movement Research, and regularly photographs for the New York Times and others. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Art Forum, Dance Magazine, and various publications throughout New York City and the world.

Performance photographer Ian Douglas has been documenting American Realness since its inception in 2010. Through his iconic images, Ian strives to preserve and even intensify what is an essentially dynamic and ephemeral experience through the isolated instant. Taken as a whole, his work provides us with a comprehensive visual record of the energy, eclecticism and creative chaos that is American Realness. Now in the festival’s fifth year–having showcased the work of fifty-two world-class artists including Miguel Gutierrez, Ann Liv Young, Trajal Harrell, luciana achugar, and Ishmael Houston-Jones–it is the perfect time to revisit some of these historic performances through Ian’s images.