George Qiao is a photographer, curator, and arts and cultural leader with more than 20 years of experience in photography, cultural preservation, museum development, exhibition-making, and international artistic exchange. His work brings together photographic practice, historical research, cultural institutions, and the development of artistic communities.

He was the Founding Art Director of the Dali Photography Museum in Yunnan, China, where he helped establish a permanent collection of more than 500 historical photographs documenting the photographic history of Yunnan. He developed international collection partnerships and collaborated with the French and Australian Consulates in Chengdu on exhibitions of historical photography.

He also co-founded DALI ART FACTORY, a 5,000-square-meter creative and cultural complex in Dali, where he developed artist residency programs, curated exhibitions, and worked with an international community of artists. From 2014 to 2023, he served on the Arts Council of the Dali International Photography Exhibition. He also organized three professional Magnum Masterclass photography workshops in China, bringing together photographers and more than 100 participants.

Alongside his institutional and curatorial work, Qiao has maintained a long-term photographic practice focused on people, cultural memory, place, and the inner conditions of human life. His projects include The Poetry of the Bai People, developed through more than a decade of observation, and In China, an extended photographic inquiry into the spiritual and psychological condition of Chinese society.

His broader practice encompasses photography history, visual archives, exhibitions, publications, photography education, and artist development. He is particularly interested in the relationship between images and cultural memory, and in creating contexts where photography can be encountered, studied, and understood beyond its immediate visual appearance.

Based in Dallas, Texas, Qiao continues to develop photographic projects, cultural collaborations, and educational initiatives in the United States and internationally.