Biography

Douglas Vuncannon is a composer, musician, writer and visual artist. In the early twentieth century, he contributed photographs, criticism and journalism to the Independent Weekly and other publications. His documentary films have screened at numerous film festivals, art spaces and museums around the world. For over ten years, Vuncannon taught documentary photography in the continuing-education program at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Photography projects include Fukushima Travelogue (2015), a photographic essay on the radioactive ghost towns of Japan, Sabungeros (Cockfighters) (2017), a series of photographs from the Philippines that was exhibited at Through This Lens in Durham, NC, and Ladyboys (2019), a collection of portraits from Bangkok, Thailand, that were also exhibited at Through This Lens.

Niblets (2021), Vuncannon's documentary featurette profiling musician and defense attorney Anne Gomez, was completed in 2021. It was screened at Shadowbox Studio, the North Carolina Museum of Art, on Chinese television, and at film festivals in North America, Europe and Asia.

Vuncannon has recorded and performed with numerous Triangle-area bands, including The Triangle Soundpainting Orchestra, Felix Obelix, Billy Sugarfix's Carousel, Curtis Eller's American Circus, Teacup Gin and Beloved Binge. On October 6th, 2017, Vuncannon's Sinfonietta Fukushima (2013), a one-movement satirical tone poem, had its world premiere in Sydney, Australia. It was performed by the sixty-piece Sydney Contemporary Orchestra. In 2020, Vuncannon released the album Symphonic/Electronic, a collection of studio recordings from the 2000s and 2010s.