Adam Shemper was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He is a photographer, writer and psychotherapist. His images and words have appeared in TimeThe New York TimesMother Jones, The Paris Review, Double Take Magazine, Exposure, The Oxford American, Salon.com, The Shambhala Sun, as well as in national and foreign newspapers The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, The Daily Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan) and The Bund (Shanghai). Selected images from his series "Sardis Lake" (2000) were included in the International Center of Photography's 2003 exhibition Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self.  He contributed a photograph from his series "Portraits of Invisible Men" to the Academy Award-nominated director Ava DuVernay's documentary 13th, which premiered on October 8, 2016. His studio, Kingfisher, is in Healdsburg, California.