Adam Golfer is an artist and filmmaker based in New York. His studio practice combines elements of essay filmmaking, photography, and book making, and informs the commissions he takes on as a director and cinematographer. With his cinematography, he looks for moments of human intimacy and a rawness that feel tactile, no matter the scale or situation. Professionally, he splits his time between DPing fashion/commercial projects and directing short-form documentaries. His personal projects explore borders, and the ambiguous boundaries between personal and collective memory.
He holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, an MFA from Hunter College in New York, and was an artist fellow in the the 2022-2023 cohort of the New Jewish Culture Fellowship.
Golfer’s films and image-based installations have been exhibited at Underdonk, Goucher College, the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago, Nurture Art, the Goethe Institut and the 92nd Street Y. His documentary and essay films have screened internationally at festivals including AmDocs, Miami, Film Diary NYC, Newfest, Outfest Fusion, and Frameline.
His 2016 photographic monograph, A House Without a Roof, was shortlisted for the Aperture First Book Award and the Kraszna-Krausz Photobook Award in 2016-2017. In 2024, Golfer self-published Kaddish, a book of photographs, screenshots, home movies, Zoom funerals, iPhone videos and text fragments. The book looks at the manner in which personal experiences of loss become woven into the fabric of broader historical narratives and collective mourning. He has given talks about Kaddish in New York and Berlin.
Adam Golfer is an artist and filmmaker based in New York. His studio practice combines elements of essay filmmaking, photography, and book making, and informs the commissions he takes on as a director and cinematographer. With his cinematography, he looks for moments of human intimacy and a rawness that feel tactile, no matter the scale or situation. Professionally, he splits his time between DPing fashion/commercial projects and directing short-form documentaries. His personal projects explore borders, and the ambiguous boundaries between personal and collective memory.
He holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, an MFA from Hunter College in New York, and was an artist fellow in the the 2022-2023 cohort of the New Jewish Culture Fellowship.
Golfer’s films and image-based installations have been exhibited at Underdonk, Goucher College, the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago, Nurture Art, the Goethe Institut and the 92nd Street Y. His documentary and essay films have screened internationally at festivals including AmDocs, Miami, Film Diary NYC, Newfest, Outfest Fusion, and Frameline.
His 2016 photographic monograph, A House Without a Roof, was shortlisted for the Aperture First Book Award and the Kraszna-Krausz Photobook Award in 2016-2017. In 2024, Golfer self-published Kaddish, a book of photographs, screenshots, home movies, Zoom funerals, iPhone videos and text fragments. The book looks at the manner in which personal experiences of loss become woven into the fabric of broader historical narratives and collective mourning. He has given talks about Kaddish in New York and Berlin.