Hinda Schuman is a documentary photographer, photojournalist, and educator. She spent almost 20 years at The Philadelphia Inquirer covering regional news and sports. Prior to her career at The Inquirer, she taught reading and other classes to students in grades 1-8 in Vermont. Hinda was the volunteer coordinator for the Brattleboro (VT) Area Women’s Crisis Center, assisting women who were fleeing their abusers. She also worked as a counselor at a group home, baked bread in a factory and built two houses foundation to roof.
After getting her MFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture in 1985, she installed door knockers in an apartment building and was an office manager. For two years she wrote curriculum and taught career development classes at Jersey City University. A wonderful meeting with a photography editor enabled her to become a full-time photojournalist. After being laid off in 2009, she taught photography and hustled in the free-lance marketplace.
Hinda then switched to long form documentary work. Her first book, Dear Shirley was published by Daylight books in 2018. It is about her divorce from Jeremy, coming out and marrying Susan Toler, her wife for most of the last 40 years. Her second book, Done Doing Time is scheduled for publication by Daylight Books in early 2023. This is the story of two women returning to their neighborhoods after several incarcerations. An earlier project, Halfway Home was about women serving the final year of multi-year sentences in a less restrictive environment. She has projects that are not complete at present with photographs from the Mississippi Delta and Cuba.
Hinda has been volunteering as a driver for persons obtaining abortions in Philadelphia.
In 2022 she was selected to be included in Hundred Heroines, (hundredheroines.org), dedicated to promoting women in photography.
She currently lives in Philadelphia PA with her wife Susan. They have 3 fabulous grandchildren.
Hinda was born in Brooklyn NY in 1948. Brooklyn has never left her.