Betty Press currently teaches photography at University of Southern Mississippi. She grew up in rural Nebraska on a farm. She is best known for her photographs taken in Africa when she lived and worked in Kenya from 1987 to 1995. Now living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi she photographs the South as well as Africa. Her photographs have been widely exhibited and collected around the world as well as being selected for many juried competitions. In 2011 she published her first award winning photobook I Am Because We Are: African Wisdom in Image and Proverb. She captured a stunning, life-affirming portrait of the African people and culture. In 2012 she received the statewide award in photography, from the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters and in 2013 a Mississippi Visual Artist Fellowship Grant. She is represented by Panos Pictures, London; Photographic Image Group, Portland, Oregon; International Visions Gallery, Washington, DC; Fischers Galleries, Jackson, Mississippi; Oddfellows Gallery, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya.  Her current project deals with living in Mississippi and trying to come to terms with the “place” where she now lives.