Tara Champion (b. 1983, WA; resides in Seattle) is an artist and educator who explores biological visualization in humans and other species. Her current work applies visual truths to the concepts of memory, and the shared human struggle of adapting to environmental change, be it of the familial, or the global climate. She holds an M.S. in biological photography and imaging from the University of Nottingham.
She has been published in the US and abroad, and exhibited in galleries throughout in the Pacific Northwest. Champion is a founding member of the IRL Collective, whose members are from underrepresented communities. Her work was featured in the group exhibition, “Inside Out,” at Photographic Center Northwest in Spring 2021; curated by another collective she is a member of, the Push/Pull Collective.
Her current project is using new knowledge, research and connection of adoptees, accelerated by social media and consumer access to DNA tests. Some of the facts are painful, and staggering: adoptees are four times more likely to commit suicide then their non-adopted counterparts, and are at increased risk of drug addiction, divorce, and mental health problems throughout their lives. She hopes to give voice to what it means to live with preverbal trauma—that which occurs in the early stages of a child’s development with no way to express or contextualize feelings—and how memory and identity can be used to retell the past.
