Founded in 2025, PHOTO CLEVELAND is dedicated to celebrating photography as a powerful art form and visual storytelling language.
Photo Cleveland fosters community engagement through exhibitions, education, and collaborative projects highlighting photography and multimedia.
Photo Cleveland is presented by Gemini Developers, a volunteer run non profit 501.(c).(3) corporation.
PHOTO CLEVELAND IS…
Jim Szudy ā Founder, Director, Marketing ManagerĀ
Jim Szudy is a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University and has been deeply rooted in the Cleveland arts and culture community for over 30 years. Jim is the Founder and President of Gemini Developers, freelance photographer, writer, poet, musician, noiseician, music producer, multimedia artist, and former Director/Marketing Manager of the Cleveland Photo Fest.
IG: @jimszudy, @440photocle, @nihil_omnia, @fellahean_cle
Cara GaetanoĀ – Director, Educator, Curator
Cara M Gaetano is a photographer/instructor who has taught at the Cleveland Print Room, Arts Impact (for Cleveland Metropolitan Schools), Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh Filmmakers School of Arts & Media, as well as through her own instruction company, Ethereal Aperture Photo, where sheās offered urban exploration classes such as Rust Belt Ruins, Strange PA, Abandoned Pittsburgh, and workshops on how to use plastic/toy cameras such as the Holga and Diana. She has founded and/or participates in multiple photo collectives and regularly exhibits her work. Her photos have been featured many times on @TheDailyHolga as well as @HolgaWeek.Ā
Cara strives to live the āart lifeā as much as possible. This was best described by the late, great, David Lynch, as not only having a devotion to the arts, but also as making oneās own creativity the guiding force of their life. Photography, films, and art in general, have had a profound effect on Cara, and she believes in the power of it enriching the lives of others, just as it did her own.Ā
IG @EtherealAperturePhoto & @CaraMiaPhoto
It was through the Cleveland Photo Fest that Jim and Cara connected, sharing mutual views on photography, films, and the arts.
As a result, they decided to form their own organization that was more in line with their values and visionĀ in addition to how to support and promote their NE Ohio local photo community as well as others outside of their area.