Photographer Sam Comen “is best known for his environmental portrait essays that feature evocative California locales. As a documentary photographer, he has long focused on themes of American identity, community-building, immigration, democracy, and social justice.”

—Taína Caragol, National Portrait Gallery, Curator of Painting and Sculpture and Latino Art and History.

Sam specializes in shooting environmental portraits of everyday heroes as well as leaders, actors, musicians, and artists for national publications.

Currently on tour across the United States are Comen’s exhibitions Working America: portraits of immigrant and 1st-generation Americans at work, and The Newest Americans: portraits of U.S. citizens before and after taking the oath of citizenship.

His last project, Unhoused, focused on Californians experiencing homelessness, and was a collaboration with the University of California San Francisco’s Benioff Homeless and Housing Initiative. 

He’s twice been exhibited by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and his work is held in the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Library of Congress.

Learn more at samcomen.com