Carl Gunhouse was born in 1976 in Boston, Massachusetts, but he spent his formative years in suburban New Jersey. Growing up, he developed a love/hate relationship with suburbia that led to the angst familiar to most suburban youth. With this unrest came the discovery of the anger and DIY ethics of hardcore punk rock. Yearning to be part of the hardcore scene, he started photographing bands, which began his love of photography.
To escape suburban New Jersey, Carl enrolled in Fordham University in New York City. While completing a BA in European History at Fordham, he discovered that photography could be something to pursue as career so he decided to simultaneously complete a BFA in Photography. After going on to earn his MA in American History from Fordham, Carl threw himself into finding an expression for his suburban angst in street photography. In a hope to develop and refine his photography, Carl completed his MFA in Photography at Yale University.
Since graduating, he has found a great deal of personal satisfaction teaching as an Adjunct at Montclair State University, Cooper Union, and Nassau Community College. He has also gained some renown for his straightforward writing on photography for such web sites as SearchingForTheLight, Skuawk, and BigRed&Shiny. His photography has been shown in nationally and internationally. As an artist, he has produced a body of landscape photographs in New Jersey that deals with his complex personal relationship to suburbia. He is now investigating the suburban experience by driving around the United States and exploring what it is to be an American. Carl currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.