As a New York based photographer, Spencer Nichols negotiates the balance between traditional and contemporary ideals. Born in Denver, Colorado (1998), and then raised in San Diego, California, Nichols grew up in a nontraditional family, enduring many obstacles during his childhood. He began studying art and its history in high school when he took an art history class, and fell in love with it; however, didn’t start making art until college. He enrolled at the University of Arizona as an art history major with a minor in Spanish. While studying, he realized that he wanted to try making art, and fell in love with photography, eager to test the boundary on how photos can be used to blend the past with the present, and eventually the future. Nichols completed his MFA in Photography at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY in 2023.
Nichols works both digitally and in analog, often incorporating found imagery and textual elements. His work is based in his autobiography and examines the way an individual can navigate the surrounding world, the responsibility of consciousness, and male sexuality. Nichols often includes the subject of the work in the process of creation, resulting in unexpected uses of materials. Currently, his work is dealing with masculinity, and the boundaries to which it can be pushed, and the place from which it came.