2026 SDN Visual Storytelling Festival Speaker Series

Women and Documentary

Thursday, June 18
6:00-8:00 pm
In-person at the Leica Gallery Boston
74 Arlington St, Boston, MA

Panel discussion with:
Julianne Snow Gauron. Myrrh Farming in Ethiopia
Uliana Storoshchuk. Grandma From the Corner (Ukraine)

Join us for this in-person panel to celebrate women documentary photographers. Earlier this year Boston-based photographer Julianne Snow Gauron travelled to Ethiopia with two researchers to explore the ancient practice of myrrh farming, how to ensure that those who harvest the resin get more of the direct profits instead of middlemen along the opaque supply chain, and the new challenges brought about by climate change. Ukrainian photographer and currently New York resident, Uliana Storoshchuk, tells the story of a 94-year-old grandmother in a rural village in Ukraine who continues to care for her closest companions — goats, cats, dogs, ducks and chickens— and reminds us that resilience does not always look like protest or battle. It looks like a woman refusing to abandon the lives that depend on her, no matter the danger.

No cost for program but registration is required.

AP Photo/Julianne Gauron. Burning myrrh, which is done to deter bugs and snakes, mingles with cooking smoke in a dark roadside restaurant as a young woman walks by bottles of water and soda Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Afcadde, Ethiopia. 

Photo by Uliana Storoshchuk from Grandma From the Corner on SDN. Light from the window falls on the wall and on the icons of the Virgin Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in the kitchen of Ganka’s house, Lany, Western Ukraine, January 2022.

Julianne Snow Gauron

Julianne Snow Gauron is a full-time freelance photographer, explorer ,and naturalist based in the Boston area. She creates narratives which bear witness to human connection, and disconnection, with the changing natural world and each other. Through her imagery the systemic becomes personal.

Julianne believes documentary storytelling is a critical tool for building connection, empathy, and catalyzing social change. With more than a decade as an industrial designer, Julianne bring unique field research skills and strategy frameworks to collaborations, resulting in impactful stories.

In addition to photography, she is a documentary director and videographer through her media company, Snow on the Road.

Julianne is an AP contributor (writing and images,) and her work has been published in major outlets including The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, MSN, Bloomberg TV, and PBS, and she directed the award-winning documentary short film series, Dear Senator.

She has lived in England, Ireland, Italy, India, and the Marshall Islands, and travels widely. Outside work and travel, she can be found in nature with her animals.

Uliana Storoshchuk

Uliana Storoshchuk is a Ukrainian journalist and photojournalist currently based in New York, working at the intersection of documentary and visual storytelling. Her work explores memory, care, and resilience, often focusing on lives shaped by war and displacement, while also documenting current events in the U.S. In her artistic practice, she experiments with various approaches, combining conceptual and documentary photography with narrative journalism, grounded in her personal experience and ongoing connection to Ukraine.

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