Caroline Mardok is a French-American visual artist whose work explores identity, belonging, and social movements through photography, public art, and documentary storytelling.
Based in Brooklyn, she creates long-form visual narratives that blend black-and-white portraiture, street photography, and interviews to reflect communities navigating exclusion, resilience, and transformation. Her foundation in portraiture—built through years of photographing renowned musicians, writers, and cultural icons—has shaped a practice that is both intimate and socially engaged.
Mardok’s work moves fluidly between traditional and public spaces, taking the form of large-scale murals and sculptural installations. Not Tired Yet, exhibited at Bronx River Art Center, honors the activism of Black and Trans women in New York. Her photo-sculpture park In Honor of Black Lives Matter, displayed in the Bronx (2021–2022), offered a multidimensional reflection on the 2020 uprisings. In Red Hook, she created American Dream, a 100-foot multimedia mural confronting climate change, public housing, and collective strength in waterfront communities.
Her portrait series Lead with Love celebrates a collective of trans and non-binary individuals reclaiming liberation and visibility through movement. The work was featured in Revolution is Love, published by Aperture, with several of her photographs—including the cover image—contributing to the visual legacy of the Black Trans Liberation movement. Her most recent series,
Water Guardians, documents inclusive surf lessons for children across New York, reclaiming the ocean as a site of joy, safety, and connection. She is currently directing her first documentary film, expanding her exploration of water access, environmental justice, and surf culture through moving image and sound.
Her work has been featured in The New York Times, CBS, and Artnet, and exhibited by ICP, Aperture, and the British Journal of Photography. She lives and works in Brooklyn.
