Nancy Floyd, born in Monticello, Minnesota in 1956, is an American photographer. Her photographic subjects mainly concern women and the female body during youth, pregnancy, and while aging. Her project She's Got a Gun comprises portraits of women and their firearms, which is linked to her Texas childhood. Floyd's work has been shown in 18 solo exhibitions and is held in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the High Museum of Art. Floyd is a professor emeritus of photography at the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design at Georgia State University.
Education
Floyd received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin (1982). She then went on to receive her Master's degree from Columbia College Chicago (1985) and later her Master of Fine Arts, MFA (1987), from the California Institute of the Arts.
Photography
Weathering Time
Beginning in 1982, Floyd began photographing herself daily, taking more than 2,500 photos of herself. These photographs focus on the female body, the passing of time, and the loss of family members. Cultural and technological changes are also noted through her self-portraits through accompanying fashion and settings. The work is a reflection of Floyd's personal experiences with aging and mortality by documenting herself in her personal environment to record her own transformations over time. Floyd sought not only to document the passing of time but also to produce work that expressed information about her own generational context. This specific series of work was exhibited in many different galleries and Floyd received multiple awards and scholarships for this series including the ICP / GOST First Photo Book Award.
She's Got a Gun
To better understand her deceased brother and his love for firearms, Floyd purchased her own gun and discovered a love for the sport and the people she met through it. She began cataloging a visual history of women and guns. In 2008, Floyd published her first book titled, She's Got a Gun, which includes 35 images taken by Floyd of women with guns. The book references American gun women, but it is also a memoir of her Texas childhood since she lost her brother to the Vietnam war at a very young age.
10.9
10.9 is another series of photographs that relates closely to Floyd's own love for firearms and the strong women she chooses to photograph. This collection displays images and videos of female competition shooters.
The James M. Floyd Memorial
This series of works is a collection of photographs devoted to the brother that she lost when she was only twelve years old. These photographs explore Floyd's feelings about what happened to her brother who died while fighting for the army.
Walking Through the Desert with My Eyes Closed
Walking Through the Desert with My Eyes Closed is a series of videos of Floyd's feet and the ground as she walks through a desert. Some of these videos include music to go along with the work. The work was exhibited in a solo exhibition at Whitespace Gallery, in Atlanta, Georgia in 2021.
Exhibitions
Nancy Floyd has exhibited 18 solo exhibitions and more than 70 group shows. Her exhibitions have been featured in the United States, Japan, and Europe, and include the following galleries:
"Weathering Time" Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR (July 3–28, 2019, solo) CUE Art Foundation, New York, NY (September 7 – October 21, 2017, solo) Whitespace, Atlanta, Georgia (November – December 2, 2017, solo) Flux Projects, Atlanta, Georgia (2011, solo) "Everyday Is Ordinary", Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, San Antonio, TX (June 4 – August 9, 2015) "Georgia Artists Selecting Georgia Artists", Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia (June 22 – August 24, 2013, group) Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain (March 8 – June 5, 2011, group) Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, White Column, New York, NY California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA Center for Creative Photography, High Museum of Art and Lightwork