Tanya Marcuse (b. 1964) is an American photographer most known for her large-scale photographs that explore the imperiled natural world. Her projects use increasingly fantastical imagery and elaborate methods of construction to explore cycles of growth and decay and the dynamic tension between the passage of time and the photographic medium.

Marcuse began making photographs as an early college student at Bard College at Simon’s Rock before studying Art History and Studio Art at Oberlin College. She earned her MFA from Yale University, where she was awarded the George Sakier Memorial Prize for Excellence in Photography.

Her work is held in public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the George Eastman Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Yale University Art Gallery. Marcuse is the recipient of numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Peter S. Reed Grant, an American Scandinavian Fellowship, and two MacDowell Fellowships.

Marcuse’s photography has been exhibited internationally at venues such as the George Eastman Museum, Julie Saul Gallery, Hemphill Artworks, Galerie Miranda (Paris), Yoshii Gallery, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Yale Art Gallery, Belfast Exposed Photography (Northern Ireland), and Las Palmas II Art Exhibition Centre (Rotterdam). Her recent solo exhibition Tanya Marcuse: Laws of Nature at the Denver Botanic Garden Art Gallery received critical attention in Hyperallergic. 

Her work has been included in notable group shows, such as Dress Codes: The Third Triennial of Photography and Video at the International Center of Photography, and Heroines at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, curated by Guillermo Solana. Her monumental piece Woven Nº 30 was featured in Actual Size, curated by David Campany.

The book form plays a significant role in Marcuse’s practice. Her published books include Undergarments and Armor (Nazraeli Press, 2005), Wax Bodies (Nazraeli Press, 2012), Fruitless | Fallen | Woven (Radius Press, 2019), Ink (Fall Line Press, 2021), and Portent (Nazraeli Press, 2024). 

She is a dedicated student of martial arts and boxing as methods of cultivating mental and physical concentration and discipline. Marcuse is based in the Hudson Valley, in New York State and teaches Photography at Bard College.