Vivian Babuts is an interdisciplinary artist, art educator and freelance photographer of Romanian ancestry. As an artist they work primarily in photography, drawing, poetry and performance.

Growing up in the Syracuse, New York area, after completing 9 years of classical dance training and while still a teenager, they were introduced to the SLR camera and darkroom. They began photographing seriously and studied fine art photography while attending Cornell University summer program for high school students.

They went on to receive their BFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a concentration in Photography and Painting – spending their junior undergraduate year immersed in photography, drawing, painting, art history, and Italian language, while attending Syracuse University's study abroad program in Florence, Italy. Throughout undergrad, alongside learning academic technical skills in life drawing and oil painting, their interest in documentary photography grew strong. Heading over to neighboring Detroit to listen to Bruce Davidson give a talk on his work – his passion for depicting everyday moments, his love for people and the power of the still photographic image  – it all resonated. It was inspiring and at the same time, Vivian was deeply frustrated by the "othering" impulses and practices of white photographers. Vivian became vocal in their critiques of the unquestioned dominant white male gaze reinforced by the consistent pattern of white male artists and photographers they were being taught to study. In response, Vivian began cultivating a visual voice depicting the power of women – but they decided they were not so interested in singular excellence – but rather in depictions of women in relationship to each other. Their work built up to their thesis project photographing midwives in Ann Arbor, culminating in a series of images photographing a midwife assisted homebirth.

During their time at UofM, Vivian had a work-study job assisting in the painting of theater sets for the university's on-campus theater. After attending one of the plays, Vivian was passing through the foyer area where an exhibit of black and white silver gelatin photographs stood. They walked toward them. Vivian stood transfixed, as they took in the images. It was Barbara Morgan's iconic dance photographs of Martha Graham. Vivian's two true loves: dance and photography were merged – and created by a female photographer. Martha Graham's early 20th century ground-breaking gestures of american modern dance held still in the 2-D prints. For Vivian, time stopped in this reciprocal exchange.

In the same theater paint shop, their supervisor was artist and musician, Robinlee Garber. Supportive of their passion for feminism, one day Robinlee told them that they must go see Karen Finley. She was on tour and would be coming to town to perform at Ann Arbor's historic Michigan Theater. This was in the midst of the early '90's "NEA Four" controversy in which Finley and 3 other performance artists were being used as political pawns by U.S. conservative lawmakers to censor artists and to control National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) funding. On April 4, 1992 Vivian sat in the audience and watched Finley's career defining work, “We Keep our Victims Ready”.

In April of 1994, with their "Homebirth" thesis exhibition complete, Vivian spent their remaining time before graduation, experimenting with "performing for the camera" self-portraits, and spending time at the School of Art’s North Campus library engrossed in High Performance journals. It was within those pages that they were introduced to the work of Holly Hughes. By this point, the spark for performance art in Vivian was officially ignited.

The following years were spent in New York City. Vivian continued to master their craft. They worked as a photographer’s assistant to prominent commercial photographers, including renowned dance and portrait photographer Joanne Savio in Tribeca, Manhattan. They were learning from the best in the business everything about complex studio and location lighting set-ups, directing portraiture on set, medium & large format cameras, portrait photography, still-life/product, food, interiors photography, casting calls, working with clients, celebrities, art directors – everything!

Alongside their day job, they spent evenings diligently photographing the performances of their queer community at downtown NYC venues in particular WOW café theater – the legendary East Village lesbian women’s theater. (it was through reading interviews with Holly Hughes that Vivian had learned about WOW and it was the first place they went to upon arriving in NYC.) Photographing at WOW became a multi-year project documenting queer directed performances in the east village’s vibrant performance scene of the mid & late ’90’s. After an evening of photographing, Vivian would return to their apartment on E.5th St to cover the window facing the lights from behind E. 6th st. with a blanket, load the canisters, mix the chemistry and develop the film over the sink – while perfecting how much to “pull” the film in order to get a good tonal range out of the very contrasty theater lighting; then hanging the 35mm roll film in the bathroom to dry. Vivian was also working as a Teaching Assistant at ICP/International Center of Photography (back when they were on E 94th St) in exchange for coveted time and access to the b&w and color darkrooms where Vivian would create prints. This body of work earned them a Light Work Grant in Photography and work from this series is included in Light Work's permanent collection. An image from this series can also be found in Judith Halberstam's influential book, Female Masculinity.

During this same period, Vivian fully embraced their passion for performance art, creating many short solo works performed at WOW as well as in public spaces in NYC. In 2004, supported by a grant from Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, they presented their first evening length solo performance at Dixon Place during the annual HOT Queer festival.

Later that same year they left NYC for Southern California to attend California Institute of the Arts and study with faculty mentor Kaucyila Brooke. Though digital photography was securing its foothold in the field at this time, Vivian continued to work in analog photography and enjoyed creating major projects working with large format 8x10 view cameras and rolls of mural size c-print paper in the pitch black (no safe-lights) color mural darkroom. In addition, Vivian created and performed several short solo performance artworks and studied Dance Theater with award winning choreographer and theater director, Mira Kingsley. In 2006 Vivian received their MFA from California Institute of the Arts, Photo & Media Program.

At CalArts they met fellow artist, Joey Christiano Diaz, and it was there that they fell in love. Intense artistic collaborations followed across many years, which included working together in photography, video and performance art. Gay marriage, a cross-country move to Manhattan – and then to Brooklyn ensued. During the “Bushwick years” they showed their photographs and video art at artist run spaces, and in 2019 mounted a solo exhibition of their collaborative work at Joseph Imhauser's Lyeberry HQ Gallery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Like many artists who have come before, Vivian has had a concurrent commercial career. Their experience in photographing theater performances including those of Heidi Duckler Dance Company, allowed for their skills to transfer to photographing intimate VIP and large-scale events for organizations. They photographed events for the MAK Center for Art & Architecture in Los Angeles, including creating photographic documentation of MAK's recurring VIP architectural tours throughout the Hollywood Hills. Their client work evolved to include corporate clients such as Hilton Worldwide, The Beverly Hilton, Luxottica, and PREA/Pension Real Estate Association, among others. Vivian has also had the pleasure of photographing VIP destination corporate events in locations such as Anguilla, St. Maarten, Maui, St. Barths, and Cabo San Lucas.

Vivian's client portraiture work has also played a significant role in their practice. They have developed a specialty in working with people who are not professional models to create an experience where clients can connect with their physicality, movement and presence in front of the camera. Vivian brings their dance, movement, and performance background toward creating portraits. Vivian's experience with somatic based emotional processing work – specifically their work and training with Ann Bradney and the Radical Aliveness Institute – also informs their approach to working with clients on set.

Over the course of Vivian’s career, their work has been exhibited and performed primarily in New York and Los Angeles, as well as in Uzdin, Serbia; and seen in various publications. They are Part-time Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design where they have taught visual arts and photography since 2019.