Abbie Reese has a background in the arts and the humanities. She has won numerous awards for her writing and photography, and her photographs have been exhibited in several dozen group and solo shows, including HotHouse: The International Center for Performance and Exhibition in Chicago. She was an Adjunct Instructor of Photography for the University of Wisconsin and the Artist-in-Residence at Rockford Art Museum. In 2008, she was a Fellow at Columbia University's Oral History Research Office Summer Institute, “Oral History, Advocacy, and the Law.” In 2010, she was selected for the country’s premiere juried portfolio review, Review Santa Fe; in 2008, she was one of 50 photographers selected for a national juried portfolio review at the San Francisco Art Institute. Abbie volunteered for one year in the Communications Department aboard the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship while it was docked in Sierra Leone (a year after the cease fire to the West African country’s 11-year civil war). In 2005, she participated in Rotary International's Group Study Exchange, a month-long professional development and ambassadorial program in Germany. In addition to her work as an independent artist, Abbie is the Founder/President of The Storytelling Trust: farrago vitae, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization which conducts oral history and photography projects and creates public art exhibits featuring stories that might otherwise not be told.
She has traveled in about 40 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.