Formed in Portland, Oregon in 2015, Small Talk is a photography collective of four women: Audra Osborne, Jennifer Timmer Trail, Kristy Hruska, and Marico Fayre. Together, we explore the nature of what it means to be visual storytellers, pool resources, provide support and critique to one another, and facilitate community events and discussions. We engage in the best kind of “small talk,” that which binds us together both as a collective, and within a larger community of artists, fostering stronger work and collaboration.
Since our inception, we have produced two publications and five exhibitions featuring projects we have created as a collective. We have been the recipients of multiple grants, spoken at the Portland Art Museum, and are featured on many online photography platforms.
In early 2020, Small Talk opened the gallery and project space, Strange Paradise, located inside the Oregon Center for Contemporary Art. We have had the privilege of curating and hosting 10 exhibitions featuring over 50 photographers encompassing largely women, LGBTQIA+, and BIPOC artists. Highlights include a benefit exhibition and print sale for reproductive rights, which raised nearly $2000 for the National Network of Abortion Funds, as well as multiple Light Conversation Pop-Up projection events, book and zine launch parties, and many photo-related social gatherings.
We are looking forward to getting back to our roots as a collective in the second half of 2023–focusing on supporting each other as individual artists who are actively creating new work, individually and together.
AUDRA OSBORNE
Audra Osborne (she/her) is a photographer and crafter living in Portland, Oregon. She makes contemplative work about her life and experiences as a nuerodivergent person. Her work has be published and exhibited nationally.
Audra graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2011 with a BFA in photography and has been living in and loving Portland ever since. From 2017-2022 she was the Program Manager at Photolucida. Currently, she keeps busy with her photobooth company, Party Cat!, and creates handmade home décor under the moniker Hustle.
JENNIFER TIMMER TRAIL
Originally from Northern Michigan, Jennifer spent over a decade in New York, and some time in Copenhagen and Victoria, BC, before recently settling in Portland, Oregon. Life circumstances have kept her far from the idyllic small town she still calls home, and this has played a crucial role in the development of her work. Her photographs explore the longings that exist within relationships, things we wish we could hold on to but can’t, and the nostalgia that accompanies the process of aging. She is most interested exploring and pushing the boundaries of what a photograph can communicate on an emotional and psychological level.
Jennifer received her MFA in Photography from Hartford Art School and her BA in Art History / Studio Art / Natural Science from Michigan State University. She is currently an instructor of photography, design, and publication production, and her work has been written about and exhibited internationally.
KRISTY HRUSKA
Kristy Hruska is a photographer and curator living in Portland, Oregon. Her photographic work explores the themes of mystery and resilience and often speaks to the intersection between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Her work has be published and exhibited nationally.
Kristy has worked as the Education Director for Newspace Center for Photography and as Gallery Director for Pushdot Studio Gallery, both based in Portland, OR, and Photo Workshops Director at Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Missoula, MT. She moonlights as the Portfolio Review Room Manager for Photolucida, a photographic non-profit also based in Portland, and has been a Contributing Editor for Diffusion: Unconventional Photography Magazine.
Kristy is the Founder of Small Talk Collective.
MARICO FAYRE
Marico Fayre is a photographic artist whose work explores vulnerability, solitude, mental illness, LGBTQ identity, and the search for belonging. Having a deep curiosity about the connection between makers and their impact on the world around them, Marico often collaborates with performance artists and writers, weaving together the two voices in order to create projects of depth and strength.
A passionate storyteller, Marico also works with small businesses and graduate thesis students on branding, marketing, portfolio development, and business plans, and is dedicated to helping fellow creators understand the business side of being an artist.
Currently based in Austin, TX, she works internationally and travels as often as possible in order to continue challenging how she sees the world and what she is able to discover (and share) through her camera.
MEMBER EMERITUS
BRIANA CEREZO
Briana Cerezo utilizes photography as a medium for research and discovery. Making photographs creates a framework that fosters a deep study of those things in life that she finds most mysterious and perplexing -- namely people, the nature of relationships, creative process, spirituality, philosophy, and the inner workings of the self. Photography allows her to reflect upon and organize fragments of her experiences and observations in order to make sense of the world and her role in it.
Briana graduated from Oregon State University in 2003 with a BS in Human Development and Family Sciences and is continuing educational coursework in Energy Medicine and Spirituality. Her photographs have been featured in newspapers and magazines, and her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the Pacific Northwest. Exhibitions include The Portrait Circle Project for Rahab’s Sisters (1122 Gallery, 2019), Now I am Myself (Wolff Gallery, Portland, OR, 2016) and inclusion in the Northwest Viewing Drawers (Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, 2015). In 2017, she was awarded an artist residency with Oregon Historical Society to interview and photograph members of diverse and underrepresented populations throughout Oregon. Briana is the creator of Humans of Portland, a solo project featuring over 500 portraits and interviews of everyday people encountered on the streets of Portland.
LESLIE HICKEY
Leslie Hickey lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She earned BA degrees in Studio Art and English from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Her photographic work has been exhibited regularly, including a solo show at the Jules Maidoff Gallery at Studio Arts College International in Florence, Italy. Last October, she returned to Italy, travelling to Civita di Bagnoregio for a fellowship through The Civita Institute. In June she will mount another solo show at Edel Extra in Nuremberg, Germany. Her work can be found in the recent edition of Big Big Wednesday and at Essentialist, an online magazine. She is a founding member of Small Talk and also SCALENO, an international photographic collective. Leslie is also proprietor of a letterpress, Hoarfrost Press.
KELLI PENNINGTON
Sometimes playing a role for the camera allows Kelli to feel outside of herself. Other times it forces her to feel her skin tautly strung over her bones. She sees herself in her mind's eye and feels fragile and human. That vulnerability is as thrilling as it is terrifying.