Me
Cammie Toloui (she/her) is a first-generation Iranian-American queer artist born and raised in California. She holds a degree in photojournalism from San Francisco State University, where she also taught photography.
Her work as a documentary photographer has taken her to Russia, where she photographed punks and biker gangs; England, where she documented life on the streets of London; and in America, where she shot inside ambulances, strip clubs and other public/private worlds.
She delights in exploring and exposing taboos, finding humor in unexpected juxtapositions and discovering a subject’s unguarded truth.
Her work has been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art, among others.
Internationally, her work has been shown at Tate Modern in London, Galerie Shmorévaz in Paris and most recently as part of the Biennale della Fotografia Femminile in Italy.
Early in her career she won the New York Times Award for Excellence in Photojournalism. Her book $5 for 3 Minutes (published in 2021 by Void) was shortlisted in the 2022 Rencontres d'Arles Book Award and in 2024, Cammie was delighted to win the Fotobus Library Award for Best Photobook of the Year.
She continues to document her life and uncover taboos through her photography, her jewelry and her band the Yeastie Girlz.
Exhibitions
2024
"Private Pleasures" solo show, Haus N Gallery, Athens, Greece
Systema Plus, Palais des Arts, Marseille, France
"The Lusty Lady" solo show, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA
"Sofia Pride Arts: It is a joy to be hidden, and disaster not to be found" group show, Cop In Lingerie image from the Lusty Lady Series, +359 Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
“The Lusty Lady series” solo show, Biennale della Fotografia Femminile festival (Biennial of Women's Photography), Mantova, Italy
2023 "Private Pleasures" solo show, Lusty Lady Series, Shmorévaz Gallery, Paris, France
2022 "On Our Backs: The Revolutionary Art of Queer Sex Work"group show, Lusty Lady Series, Handwerker Gallery, Ithica, New York
2019
"Five Dollars for Three Minutes" solo show, Lusty Lady Series, Colour Index Agency, London
Mission Artists United Open Studios group show, The Brown Twins, Alley Cat Gallery, San Francisco USA
2018 “Nature Morte” group show, from the Xmas Tree series, Guildhall Art Gallery, London UK
2017 “AnonymX - The End of the Privacy Era” group show, Lusty Lady Series, Museum of Art, Haifa Israel
2013 “Streets of London” solo show, street photography series, Alley Cat Gallery, San Francisco USA
2010
“Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera” Lusty Lady Series (Milk Squirt, The Couple), Tate Modern, London UK
“Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera” Lusty Lady Series (Milk Squirt, The Couple), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
2007-2008 “In the Fullness of Time” group show, Lusty Lady Series (images Milk Kiss, Bear Whiz, Couple, Cop in Lingerie) Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco USA
2006 “Interloper” solo show, Mythos Gallery, Iowa City USA
2005 “Unzipped” group show, Lusty Lady Series and Addicted image from Penis Pain series. Chait Gallery, Iowa City USA
1996 848 Divisadero Gallery, group show, San Francisco, USA
1994 Lusty Lady Series, solo show, SF Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco, USA
1994 Lusty Lady Series, PS122, New York City, USA
1994 “Bad Girls” group show, Lusty Lady Series, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City, USA
1993 “Russian Punks”, Mark I. Chester Gallery, San Francisco, USA
1992 Lusty Lady Series, Mark I. Chester Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Media
A Nice Magazine, Issue 3
Watch Cammie's artist talk in Portland, Oregon at Blue Sky Gallery on July 6th, 2024 (link opens in new window)