Chris Verene was born in 1969 in Galesburg, Illinois. He earned an MFA in photography/studio art at Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA and currently lives and works in New York City. Chris Verene's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, the High Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and others. Verene was the first-ever photographer to receive a Pollock-Krasner Grant for full support (2002-2003).