The Nomadic Photo Ark (aka The Ark) is a cargo trailer pulled by a Toyota Tacoma truck that have been custom-converted to create a fully equipped black-and-white darkroom, and living/office spaces. It is the mobile home to nomadic, itinerant artists Monica Jane Frisell and Adam Scher , providing the duo with the possibility to move around independently and self-sufficiently. The darkroom supports all forms of photography but with a strong focus on the processing and printing of black and white images, an art increasingly more important to preserve in today’s digital world.

Since 2021, photographer Monica Frisell and audio recorder/editor Adam Scher (self-described “collectors of faces and stories”) have been zigzagging across the country in The Ark, amassing an audiovisual archive which they call Portrait Of US. The stories are garnered from people based in both rural and urban communities, each one a snapshot of one ordinary person but which when threaded together, produce a mosaic of community life and what binds us together, collectively, as Americans.

Just some of the topics that have been entrusted to and captured by Frisell and Scher for their now 250-and-counting portrait portfolio include: grappling with health problems or issues of sexual or cultural identity and body image; dealing with grief or the pressures of starting a business or becoming a parent; handling the impact of addiction, sobriety, faith or politics; what binds a person historically to a place; and just recalling important personal memories, such as a first kiss… As Frisell explains, "Many folks seem to derive relief from the experience - particularly after the isolation of the Pandemic - the project provides a moment for people to feel seen and heard, albeit by two seeming strangers."