Sam Bell’s interest in photography began in her early teens as she explored with a point-and-shoot 35mm camera, later working her first job in a local portrait studio and film lab. She went on to found and operate a photography company before taking on commissioned projects across Latin America, the United States, East and South Africa, and Canada. She now works independently on long term, research driven documentary projects. She holds an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford and a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia. Her current work is undertaken alongside a practice based PhD in Art History that examines how documentary photography operates within ongoing conditions of violence in the Alberta Rocky Mountains.