This is our third of a continuing series in conjunction with Red River Paper.

Red River Paper’s Education program helps photography students by providing high quality photo papers to photography education programs around the U.S.

On each of these special shows my guest will be a photography student from one of the Red River Paper Education partner schools. Tied to each of these education episodes we will also do a limited time social media based giveaway of 10 Red River Paper Sample packs, with one of those winners also receiving a Grand Prize of a 13×19 print of the student’s image from that show. Details on the giveaway, and how to enter, can be found here.

For this show, we are joined by documentary photographer Cheney Orr, who is a student at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York.

Raised in Ny York City, Cheney knew he wanted to learn photography at a young age. At 15 he began studying at ICP, and just three years later he became a teaching assistant for teen and continuing education programming.

As you look through Cheney’s Instagram feed you quickly realize he has the type of photographic eye you rarely see. He tells stories, and conveys a depth of feeling and emotion in his images.

A trip to Ukraine in 2014, where he collected stories and portraits of the country’s youth immediately after the Euromaidan protests, would lead to a solo exhibition at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York City.

Since 2014, he has freelanced, primarily working as a production assistant, photo assistant and construction contractor assistant. He is an alum of the 2017 Missouri Photo Workshop where he was the recipient of the Team Gilka Award.

His first long-term photo essay, documenting his father’s struggle with early-onset Alzheimer’s, was published by​ ​The New York Times Lens Blog​ in January 2018. Additional work has appeared in the New York Times, Vice, Gothamist and Curbed New York. As the recipient of the Mary Ellen Mark Scholarship, he is currently a full-time student in the Documentary Practices and Visual Journalism program at ICP.

Join documentary photographer Cheney Orr and me as we take a look at how to tell better visual stories, on this episode of Behind the Shot.

Portfolio: cheneyorr.com

Photography Program: icp.org

Premium Photo Paper Catalog: redrivercatalog.com