JONNA MCKONE is a an award-winning photographer, artist, and filmmaker based in Baltimore, MD. She works with documentary, archives, and abstraction to explore legacies of empire, the fragility of truth, and the land and body as vessels of memory. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums including Candela Gallery (Richmond, MD), Connect and Collect (Baltimore, MD), Resort Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Zimmerli Art Museum (New Brunswick, NJ), Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, MD), Hamiltonian (Washington, DC), Zo Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Full Circle Gallery (Baltimore, MD), VisArts (Rockville, MD), and PowerPlant Gallery (Durham, NC). Her work as a visual artist has received support from The Maryland State Arts Council, the Andy Warhol Foundation, Baker Awards for film and video, Rubys Artist Project grant and the Puffin Foundation. She has been a Lewis Hine Fellow at the Center for Documentary Studies, a Flaherty Film Seminar Fellow as well as an artist in residence at Monson Arts’ Abbot-Watts Photography Residency, Platteforum, Full Circle’s Analog Photography Residency, and Skidmore’s Storytellers Institute.
Alongside her studio practice, Jonna works as a freelance producer, director, photographer and researcher. Her work spans a range of formats and locations from a short-form documentary shot in Hong Kong for Art 21 to feature films made around the US. She is currently directing a series with RAVA Films. She produced THE TALLEST DWARF (2025), which premiered at SXSW and will be broadcast on Independent Lens; TO USE A MOUNTAIN (2025), which premiered at Visions du Reel where it won a Special Jury Award; the sci-fi fiction film, YOUR FINAL MEDITATION (2024), MARGIE SOUDEK’S SALT & PEPPER SHAKERS, which premiered at Sundance in 2023 and is now streaming on the New Yorker. She also produced the award-winning feature film ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE, which premiered at Sundance in 2021, where it won a Special Jury Award for Nonfiction Experimentation among other awards. Her films have been supported by Ford Foundation | Just Films, Sandbox Films, Sundance Institute, Redford Center, Princess Grace, Rogovy Foundation, Points North Institute, SFFILM, Kenneth/Rainin Foundation, California Humanities, Cinereach, International Documentary Association (IDA) and ITVS.
Jonna has taught and developed graduate, undergraduate, workshops and community-based productions for Skidmore College, Johns Hopkins University, MICA, Radio Rookies, Appalshop, and the Partnership for Appalachian Girls Education. These communities and a dedication to collaboration and the permeability of points of view deeply inform her artistic approach. She is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Duke’s MFA in Experimental & Documentary Arts. Before working in film, Jonna was a radio producer and reporter whose work has appeared on BCC, NPR, the New Yorker Radio Hour, WYPR, and WNYC.
JONNA MCKONE is a an award-winning photographer, artist, and filmmaker based in Baltimore, MD. She works with documentary, archives, and abstraction to explore legacies of empire, the fragility of truth, and the land and body as vessels of memory. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums including Candela Gallery (Richmond, MD), Connect and Collect (Baltimore, MD), Resort Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Zimmerli Art Museum (New Brunswick, NJ), Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, MD), Hamiltonian (Washington, DC), Zo Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Full Circle Gallery (Baltimore, MD), VisArts (Rockville, MD), and PowerPlant Gallery (Durham, NC). Her work as a visual artist has received support from The Maryland State Arts Council, the Andy Warhol Foundation, Baker Awards for film and video, Rubys Artist Project grant and the Puffin Foundation. She has been a Lewis Hine Fellow at the Center for Documentary Studies, a Flaherty Film Seminar Fellow as well as an artist in residence at Monson Arts’ Abbot-Watts Photography Residency, Platteforum, Full Circle’s Analog Photography Residency, and Skidmore’s Storytellers Institute.
Alongside her studio practice, Jonna works as a freelance producer, director, photographer and researcher. Her work spans a range of formats and locations from a short-form documentary shot in Hong Kong for Art 21 to feature films made around the US. She is currently directing a series with RAVA Films. She produced THE TALLEST DWARF (2025), which premiered at SXSW and will be broadcast on Independent Lens; TO USE A MOUNTAIN (2025), which premiered at Visions du Reel where it won a Special Jury Award; the sci-fi fiction film, YOUR FINAL MEDITATION (2024), MARGIE SOUDEK’S SALT & PEPPER SHAKERS, which premiered at Sundance in 2023 and is now streaming on the New Yorker. She also produced the award-winning feature film ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE, which premiered at Sundance in 2021, where it won a Special Jury Award for Nonfiction Experimentation among other awards. Her films have been supported by Ford Foundation | Just Films, Sandbox Films, Sundance Institute, Redford Center, Princess Grace, Rogovy Foundation, Points North Institute, SFFILM, Kenneth/Rainin Foundation, California Humanities, Cinereach, International Documentary Association (IDA) and ITVS.
Jonna has taught and developed graduate, undergraduate, workshops and community-based productions for Skidmore College, Johns Hopkins University, MICA, Radio Rookies, Appalshop, and the Partnership for Appalachian Girls Education. These communities and a dedication to collaboration and the permeability of points of view deeply inform her artistic approach. She is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Duke’s MFA in Experimental & Documentary Arts. Before working in film, Jonna was a radio producer and reporter whose work has appeared on BCC, NPR, the New Yorker Radio Hour, WYPR, and WNYC.
