Lexey Swall (b. 1977) grew up in Bakersfield, Calif., an oil and agriculture town at the bottom of the San Joaquin Valley known for country music and dust storms. Her dad was a house painter and her mom worked a variety of jobs to make ends meet. Lexey studied photojournalism and women’s studies at San Jose State University, graduating in 2002. She also received an Associate of Arts degree in journalism from Bakersfield College in 1999. Lexey was accepted to the 2001 Eddie Adams Workshop and was a finalist for the 2001 William Randolph Hearst National College Journalism Competition. She has garnered awards from POYi and NPPA Best of Photojournalism competitions, including an honorable mention for the 2006 Photographer of the Year (small markets) in BOP. After college, Lexey worked for nearly 10 years as a photojournalist at the Naples (Fla.) Daily News. The experience taught her how important trust is when covering a small community. She learned to be an ambassador to the craft of photojournalism and to make the very best out of every assignment. She left the newspaper in the Summer of 2012 to form GRAIN, a photography collective, with Greg Kahn and Tristan Spinski. She now lives in Washington, D.C. with her best friend and partner, Greg Kahn, and their two cats, Kodak and Bear.