Edward Grazda
Born in New York City, Edward Grazda studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and has shot extensively throughout Latin America and Asia. Grazda's photographs are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The New York Public Library, all in New York City, as well as The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980 and 1986 and is the author of Afghanistan Diary: 1992-2000 (PowerHouse Books, 2000) and Afghanistan: 1980-1989 (Der Alltag, 1990).

Grazda's documentary project New York Masjid: The Mosques of New York City, accompanied by a book of the same title, presents new portraits of, and perspectives on, the Muslim community in New York. Through an exploration of the various spaces in which Muslims assemble to worship across the boroughs, Grazda's work reveals an alternative vision of Islam in America.

Jerrilynn Dodds
Jerrilynn Dodds is Professor of Architecture and Theory at the School of Architecture of The City College of New York at CUNY. Her work centers primarily on issues of artistic interchange and identity, and the problems surrounding architecture and minorities in pluralistic societies. She is the author of Architecture and Ideology of Early Medieval Spain (London and University Park, 1991); Al Andalus: The Arts of Islamic Spain (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992); and numerous other publications on architecture, Islam and cultural exchange.

A filmmaker as well as author, Professor Dodds has been writing and filming works concerning the dilemma of Muslims in contemporary society and New York Masjid: The Mosques of New York is just one example of her focus on this subject. Professor Dodd has also taught at Harvard and Columbia Universities.