Artist Bio 

Courtney Ann Riggs is a self-portrait artist originally from rural Pennsylvania, now living in Upstate New York with her family. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Photography, but her work is most deeply shaped by her lived experiences. 

Riggs uses fine art self-portraiture as a form of emotional expression and storytelling. Her work explores themes of healing, feminism, identity, and personal history. Raised in an environment marked by exposure to addiction, instability, and trauma, Riggs transforms pain into image—creating honest, often raw reflections of inner life. For her, photography is not about being seen, but about saying what words often cannot. 

Her work is influenced by artists such as Cindy Sherman, Lindsay Adler, Brooke Shaden, Ben Zank, Annie Leibovitz, Cig Harvey, and Stacy Kranitz. Riggs’ photographs are a visual language for the misunderstood and unseen—a space for honesty, resilience, and release. 

Her work has been exhibited internationally at Boomer Gallery (London), Holy Art (Barcelona), Loosen Art (Rome), Chateau Gallery (Louisville), and Treat Gallery (New York City). She is currently working on Midlife Dawn, a new series exploring the beauty, challenge, and transformation of midlife.  

Artist Statement 

I create self-portraits because they speak when I cannot. 

I grew up in chaos—teen parents, addiction, abuse—a childhood marked by silence and survival. For much of my life, I felt misunderstood, unseen, and out of place. Photography became the place where I could finally breathe. A mirror. A canvas. A release. 

My work isn’t about being in front of the camera—it’s about finding the courage to exist in full view. Each portrait is a conversation I was never able to have. I explore what it means to heal, to resist, to be a woman with a voice in a world that often prefers you quiet. Through these self-portraits, I untangle themes of feminism, identity, memory, and the expectations we inherit and outgrow. 

This is how I process what’s inside—when the words aren’t enough. 

I’ve been shaped by artists who weren’t afraid to turn the lens on themselves: Cindy Sherman, Brooke Shaden, Cig Harvey, and others who taught me that self-portraiture can be a protest, a poem, and a form of survival. Their work gave me permission. Now, I give it to myself. 

My current project, Midlife Dawn, explores the strange beauty of this season—the shedding, the reckoning, the light that returns in unexpected ways. I don’t make these portraits to be seen as special. I make them because I have the ability, the will, and the need to show what’s real—even if it’s tender, even if it’s messy.

I use my art to say: I’m still here. And this is how it feels.