Hector R. Membreno-Canales

Hector is a Honduran-American artist, educator, and researcher living and working in Massachusetts. In 2023, he was appointed the Francis C. Robertson Chair of Visual Studies and Photography at Phillips Academy Andover, and he is a Lecturer in the Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT) program at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T). In 2022, he completed the Smithsonian Institution's inaugural U.S. Army Monuments Officer Training. 

Hector was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and became a U.S. citizen in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He served more than a decade as a US Army Public Affairs Officer with posts and deployments to Iraq, El Salvador, Poland, Germany, and Canada. He used the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill to earn a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and an MFA from the Dept. of Art & Art History at Hunter College, The City University of New York.

His work has received numerous grants and awards from The Eddie Adams Workshop, Red Bull Arts, Magnum Foundation, and Harvard University. His photographs have been exhibited widely in the United States and internationally, including at Triennale der Photographie Hamburg, Osnova Gallery, Moscow, Aperture Foundation, NYC, The Delaware Contemporary Museum of Art, Athens Institute of Contemporary Art (ATHICA), Photoville, NYC, and FotoFest Houston. His photography and writing have been featured in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, The Columbia Journalism Review, NPR, CNN, L’Oeil de la Photographie, and Dear Dave Magazine.