ABOUT

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bio

Diana Cheren Nygren is a fine art photographer from Boston, Massachusetts. Her work explores the way people relate to each other and to their physical environment, be it urban, rural, or natural. She uses the ability of photography to give concrete form to ideas, in order to envision family, future, and possibility. Diana’s photographs address serious social questions through a blend of documentary practice, invention, and humor.

Diana was trained as an art historian with a focus on modern and contemporary art, and the relationship of artistic production to its socio-political context.  Her emphasis on careful composition in her photographic work, as well as her subject matter, reflects this training. Her work as a photographer is the culmination of a life-long investment in the power of art and visual culture to shape and influence social change.

origin story

Beginning when I was a little girl, my family spent every summer on Cape Cod.  The outer cape quickly became the destination of choice.  My parents loved the relative quiet and tranquility, the unspoiled nature.  We were asked, constantly it seemed, to look at nature, to admire nature, to wonder at the beauty of the dunes.  Even once I was a teenager, this made no sense to me.  I couldn't imagine anything more boring.  As we got older, trips to Europe were peppered by similar, futile, encouragement from my parents to take in the landscape.  I loved cities.  When I began to study photography, I was drawn to portrait and street photographers.  My first photographer crush was Diane Arbus.  In assignments for photography classes, I indulged in naval gazing self-portraits, inspired by Cindy Sherman, or I took to the streets of Boston trying to catch candid shots of its inhabitants.  I had little use for settings without people and the bustle of urban and communal life.

Portraiture was a fairly logical next step, and I'm still happy to take portraits on commission.  But as I have gotten older, two shifts have taken place.  Perhaps most significantly, I have finally come to understand my parents' obsession with the beauty of landscape.  Our trips now to Cape Cod are filled with hours in which I photograph dunes, marsh grass, sunlight on houses, the water and the sky.  Even at home in the city, I am want to shoot clouds more often than buildings.  I have also grown oddly uncomfortable with portrait photography, at least in the context of my photography as an art form.  Many ancient cultures believed that a photograph could steal your soul.  While I wouldn't quite put it in those terms, I think there is something to that fear.  The best portraits are indeed those which somehow capture the soul.  Although I enjoy taking those pictures, I feel that at the end of the day, they belong to the photograph's subject and not to me.  I will admit, I am still tempted to share photographs of my own children.  The idea that I am taking liberty in sharing their souls is tempered a little by the suspicion that the pictures capture less their souls and more my own heart.

I love an unpopulated landscape or a sky filled with nothing but light and color.  Yet many of what I would consider my landscape images do include human figures.  I have come to realize that they are, none the less, rarely photographs of those people.  Certainly not portraits.  They contain none of their subjects souls.  The people generally stand in for archetypes that speak to the general human condition or various typical behaviors.  And my pictures of the urban environment generally show it as a backdrop, a detail, or an abstraction, rather than a living, moving being.  Curiously, I believe that both my landscape photographs and the urban ones are portraits.  Portraits not of individuals, but of cities and locations, remarkable for their distinct character.  The message in photography is to slow down and appreciate that character, to take it in thoughtfully, to wonder at the beauty of the dunes and how dramatically they capture light.

AWARDS and honors

2023

Rfotofolio Selects winner, juror Michael Kirchoff
Budapest International Photo Awards, Bronze, Fine Art/Collage, "Mother Earth"
Aesthetica Art Prize, Longlist, "Mother Earth"
Fotonostrum Magazine Portfolio Award, "Mother Earth"
Critical Mass 2023, Top 50, "Mother Earth"
Innovation Grant, Honorable Mention, "Mother Earth"
BBA Gallery Photography Prize, Shortlist and 3rd Prize, "Mother Earth"
RPS International Photography Exhibition, shortlist
Helsinki Photo Festival, shortlist
Urban2023, Finalist and Press Award candidate, "Mother Earth"
The Photo Review, competition gallery selection, New Realities, "Chance of Rain"
All About Photo Magazine, Issue 29 Women, 2nd Place, "Grandma's Doll"
American Photography 39, Chosen, "I Believe I Can Fly"

2022

Tokyo International Foto Awards, Gold, Fine Art/Collage, “The World Needs a Superhero”
Budapest International Foto Awards, Silver, Fine Art/Collage, "The World Needs a Superhero"
ND Awards, 2nd Place, Fine Art: Photomanipulation, "The Persistence of Family"
Lucie Scholarship, Photo Made, Honorable Mention, "Life on Mars"
Dodho Magazine Color Awards, Finalist, "Babydolls"
International Photo Awards, 2nd Place Fine Art/Collage and Juror Top 5, "The World Needs a Superhero"
BBA Gallery Photography Prize, Longlist, "The World Needs a Superhero"
NYC4PA, Your Best Shot, juror Elizabeth Avedon, Juror’s Selection
The Hopper Prize, Shortlist, "The World Needs a Superhero"
American Photographic Artists Awards, Winner, Series, "The Persistence of Family"
Royal Photographic Society Intl Photography Exhibition 164, Shortlist, “The Persistence of Family”
Urban Photo Awards, Selected Photographer, "The World Needs a Superhero"
Moscow International Foto Awards, Gold, Fine Art/Collage, "The Persistence of Family"
All About Photo Awards - the Mind's Eye, "The Persistence of Family"
18th JMCA, Honorable Mention, Digital Manipulation (series), "The World Needs a Superhero"
Urbanautica & Ragusa Foto Festival 2022, Special Mention, "The World Needs a Superhero"
Creative Photo Awards 2022, Winner, Series, 1st Classified, "The Persistence of Family"
Soho Photo Gallery, International Portfolio Competition, Winner, "The Persistence of Family"
American Photography 38, Selected Winner, "The Persistence of Family"
Magenta Foundation International Photographer Award, Exposure 2022, "The Persistence of Family"
Athens Photo Festival, Shortlist, "The Persistence of Family"
Belfast Photo Festival, Shortlist, "The Persistence of Family"
Urbanautica Awards 2021, Special Mention, "The Persistence of Family"
London International Creative Competition, Best in Shoot (Photo/Video), "The Persistence of Family"
Aesthetica Art Prize, Longlist, "The Persistence of Family

2021

17th Pollux Awards, Honorable Mention, Digital Manipulation (series), “The Persistence of Family”
Tokyo International Foto Awards, Juror Top 5, juror Susan Baraz, "The Persistence of Family"
Tokyo International Foto Awards, Gold in Fine Art/Collage, "The Persistence of Family"
New York Photography Awards, Silver in Fine Art Photography-Photomanipulation, "The Persistence of Family"
New York Photography Awards, Silver in Covid-19 Related Photography-Fine Art, "I Dreamed"
17th Julia Margarett Cameron Awards, Runner Up, Digital Manipulation (series), "The Persistence of Family"
Budapest International Foto Awards, 2nd place Fine Art and Gold Fine Art/Collage, "The Persistence of Family"
Art Fluent Evolution Grant, "The Persistence of Family"
International Photography Awards, Lucie Foundation, Fine Art/Collage Non-Professional, Second Place, "The Persistence of Family"
BBA Photography Prize, Shortlist, "The Persistence of Family" 
PX3 Prix de la Photographie de Paris, Best New Talent, First Place Fine Art, Gold Fine Art/Collage, “The Persistence of Family”
IMA Next "Change", shortlist, juror Hellen van Meene, "The Persistence of Family"
The Photo Review 2021 Competition winner, '"Hey Down There"
Youthhood, Life Framer, editor’s pick, “Lulu Saves the Day”
Critics’ Choice Award 2021, Lensculture, selected by Ada Takahashi, “The Persistence of Family”
Critical Mass 2021, Finalist, "The Persistence of Family"
Urban Photo 2021, series, Semi-Finalist, “The Persistence of Family”
Creative Photo Awards 2021, Siena Awards, Commended Series, “When the Trees Are Gone”
16th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, 3rd Place, “When the Trees Are Gone”
16th Pollux Awards, Honorable Mention, “When the Trees Are Gone”
LICC, Official Selection, “When the Trees Are Gone”
Urbanautica Institute Awards, Special Mention, “When the Trees Are Gone”
OpenImage Barcelona 2020, Runner Up, “When the Trees Are Gone”
Hopper Prize, Finalist, “When the Trees Are Gone”
Passepartout Prize, Exhibition Prize, “The Persistence of Family”
Tokyo International Foto Awards, Juror Top 5, “When the Trees Are Gone
Tokyo International Foto Awards, Discovery of the Year, 1st Place Portfolio, Gold Fine Art/Collage, Gold Portfolio/Fine Art, Silver Science/Environment, “When the Trees Are Gone”
This Land is Your Land, LA Photo Curator, First Place, “Bottled Water”

2020

Budapest International Foto Awards, Silver, Fine Art/Collage, “When the Trees Are Gone”
Rfotofolio Selections, Merit Winner, “When the Trees Are Gone”
-scapes, PH21 Gallery, Honorable Mention, “Bottled Water”
IPA, Lucie Foundation, Juror Top 5, “When the Trees Are Gone”
International Photography Grant 2020, Nominee, “When the Trees Are Gone”
IPA , Lucie Foundation, Professional, Fine Art/Collage, 2nd Place, “When the Trees Are Gone”
PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris, Bronze, Fine Art/Digitally Enhanced, “When the Trees Are Gone”
BBA Photography Prize, Longlist, “When the Trees Are Gone”
Athens Photo Festival, Shortlist, “When the Trees Are Gone”
Urban2020, Portfolios, Finalist, “When the Trees Are Gone”
Critical Mass 2020, Photolucida, Top 200, “When the Trees Are Gone”
Fresh 2020, Klompching Gallery, Finalist, “When the Trees Are Gone”
Art Saves Humanity, See.Me, Grand Prize in Photography, “When the Trees Are Gone’
A Life of Possibilities, Open Call, Life Framer, Editor’s Pick, “When the Trees Are Gone”
10th Annual International Photography Competition, Florida Museum of Photographic Art, Honorable Mention, ‘Gas Station”
Nurture/Nature, Laura McPhee juror, Arlington Center for the Arts, Best in Show, “Grey Skies” and “Gas Station”