Karen Lippowiths is a Gen-X Michigan-based documentary photographer seeking to tell compelling narratives of people and place. Growing up during the rise and fall of the Industrial North in and around Detroit has afforded her an intimate understanding of this unique American chapter.

Lippowiths came of age in the fading glow of the Big Three, through NAFTA and the long stall of American manufacturing, to the eventual bankruptcy of Detroit.  She witnessed the hope and vibrancy of her home recede in the rearview mirror.  More recently, she has seen a new light gather on the horizon for Detroit.  This story arc inspires exploration of the pivotal question: what does it mean to aspire to and achieve the American Dream in the modern day Promised Land?

Specifically, Lippowiths is interested in social issue stories centered around housing insecurity and work. The daughter of a 34-year UAW auto worker and daughter-in-law of a non-union foundry worker, she explores structural and intimate choices people make resulting from long-standing barriers of race, class, gender, and the forces of societal and political change.

Lippowiths loves people. Connecting. Sharing. Being in the world. She aims to make seemingly ordinary moments extraordinary through the lens. As a photographer, she enters lives, sometimes for a fleeting moment, slipping away without her presence being known. Other times, she's a deliberate, persistent presence in someone's personal space. 

She often encounters people in difficult circumstances and in their worst moments.  She is deeptly grateful to all those who open their lives.   It is a particular privilege to bear witness and give stories a voice.  She takes something from every person she photographs.  She tries to give something in return.  It is her hope that every photograph that comes through her creates empathy and agency for those she encounters in her work.

This is why she photographs.

Lippowiths holds a B.A. in history from the University of Michigan with courseword at the Université Paris I - Sorbonne.  She has lived and traveled throughout the world, including Paris, New York, and Chicago.  She currently resides just outside of Ann Arbor with her husband and son.  She travels frequently.

248 320 1943 (EST)
karen@karenlippowiths.com
Based in Southeast Michigan

KAREN LIPPOWITHS