Amy Sacka is a documentary photographer and writer based in Detroit, Michigan. Her work celebrates the culture and environment of Detroit and the Great Lakes at large. From her widely exhibited long-term project on diminishing Great Lakes ice to her award-winning, lyrical street projects on Detroit, Amy’s work unearths important insights into Midwestern identity and the meaning of home.

Amy is a two-time National Geographic grantee and two-time Critical Mass Finalist, whose documentary work has been featured in publications from National Geographic to The Washington Post, the Guardian, Detroit Free Press and LensCulture, and exhibited everywhere from Les Recontres de Arles to Cortona on the Move, the Detroit Institute of Arts and beyond.

For commissions, please contact [email protected]

published photo essays

"Detroit Photographer Collects Love Letters to Belle Isle," Detroit Free Press, 2024
"The End of Ice," Guernica magazine, 2023
"The Photo Issue: The Real Americana," The Washington Post Magazine, 2022
"The Great Lakes depend on ice. This winter, they barely froze," National Geographic magazine, September 2020
"À Détroit, avec les partisans d’un Donald Trump revanchard : «Je le soutiendrai jusqu’au bout," Le Parisien Weekend, 2022
"On the ice: Anglers rejoice when the Great Lakes freeze," National Geographic, 2019
"Love Island Detroit: A photo essay of young love on Detroit’s Belle Isle," Detroit Metro Times, 2022
"End of Summer at Detroit’s Love Isle," Belt Magazine, 2022
"Photo Gallery: A Tribute to Michigan's Ice Fishing Traditions," Field & Stream, 2022
"The End of Ice Fishing," HuffPost, 2020
"COVID Diaries," WDET Public Radio, 2020
"For Love & Money: Finding Roommates After 40," Topic, 2019
"Mysterious People," Dodho, 2018
"Travel Portfolio," WorldWide, 2018
"Detroit Stories: What Is This City Really All About?," LensCulture, 2018
"Summer Portfolio," Musee Magazine, 2017
"Meet Amy Sacka, who took 500 photos of Detroit in 500 days," PBS World News Hour, 2015
"Lost and Found in Detroit – in Pictures," the Guardian, 2014
"Amy Sacka, Detroit Photographer, Captures City Day at a Time For A Year," Huffington Post, 2013

grants/fellowships

Air Halsnoy Kloster Residency, Shortlist, 2023
Mackinac Island Artist in Residence, 2022
Knight Foundation Arts Challenge, 2019
National Geographic Support for Women, 2019
Scholarship to Bruce Gilden's Magnum Workshop, London, 2019
National Geographic Explorer Grant, 2017
Documenting Detroit Fellowship, 2016
Visura Personal Grant, Honorable Mention, 2016

AWARDS

Critical Mass, Top 200 Photographer x3,  2024, 2023, 2017
PhotoVogue, "Tree of Life: A Love Letter to Nature" Open Call, Top 100 out of 5,000 entries, 2024
Sony World Photography Awards, Open Competition, Lifestyle, "Polar Plunge," Shortlist, 2024
21st Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Street Photography "State Fair Reflections," Honorable Mention, 2023
Prix de la Photographie "Wild," Paris, Honorble Mention - Architecture, 2023
State of the World Finalist "Last Ice," Prix de la Photographie, Paris, 2022
Siena International Photo Awards, Street Photography "State Fair Reflections," Shortlist, 2022
Pictures of the Year International, Semi-Finalist COVID Personal Expression "Every Breath," 2021
Edward R. Murrow Awards, Excellence in Innovation, COVID Diaries, 2021
Smithsonian Photo Competition, Finalist, American Experience, 2019 & 2016
LensCulture, Street Photography, Finalist, 2018
Critical Mass, Top 50 Photographer "Lost & Found in Detroit," 2017
ND Awards, Honorable Mention "Window Washers" - Other, 2015
ND Awards, Honorable Mention "Facades" - Architecture, 2014
Scarab Club Photography Competition, 2nd Place, 2016; 3rd Place, 2014
National Geographic Traveler, Photo Contest, 5 Editor's Picks, 2014 & 2012
National Geographic Photo Contest, Editor's Picks, 2012 & 2011

BOOKS - Group

"FRAMED," by WDET, 2019
"Getting Your Shot," National Geographic, 2015
"Guide to Morocco," National Geographic Traveler, 2015

Solo exhibitions

Last Ice, Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, 2022
Last Ice, Dossin Great Lakes Museum, Detroit, Michigan, 2021
Admit One: State Fair Portraits, Hatch Gallery, Hamtramck, Michigan, 2021
Sundays at the Carpet House, Baltimore Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, 2016

Group EXHIBITIONS

Sony World Photography Awards, Promenade des Artistes, Montreal, 2024
Detroit Lens: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Detroit Artists Market, 2024
Photoville, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, Massachusetts, 2023
State of the World 2022, Espace Beaurepaire, Paris, 2022
Street Photography, Hatch Gallery, Hamtramck, Michigan, 2022
Framed by WDET: Places Where We Belong, Detroit, 2019
PerSIStence, Collected Detroit, Detroit, 2019
LensCulture Street Photography Exhibition, Les Rencontres d'Arles, France, 2018
Documenting Detroit, Photoville, Brooklyn, New York, 2017
Documenting Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, 2017
Critical Mass 2017 Top 50 Exhibition: Contemporary Reference of the Human Condition, Cortona on the Move, Italy, 2017
Critical Mass 2017 Top 50 Exhibition: Contemporary Reference of the Human Condition, Edition One, Santa Fe, 2017
Acutal Size Biennial, Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, 2016
No Place Like Detroit, Baltimore Gallery, Detroit, 2016
Midwest Contemporary, Lillstreet Gallery, Chicago, 2016
Scarab Club Photography Exhibition, Detroit, 2016 & 2014
Brighton Photo Biennial, Night Contact, Brighton, UK, 2015
Eye on the D: Seeing Detroit with New Eyes, 555 Gallery, Detroit, 2015

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

Mackinac State Historic Parks, 2022

EDITORIAL COMMISSIONs

National Geographic, HuffPost, The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, Le Parisien, Punch, Bust, Detroit Free Press, Planet Detroit

commercial commissions

Adobe, Microsoft, Shinola, Luna Bar, Citizens Bank, Atwell, Hennessy Engineers, Hamilton Anderson, and many more

EDUCATION

University of Notre Dame, BA Cum Laude
Mentorship with Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb
Mentorship with Alan Chin and Zun Lee