BIO

Zachary Skurski is a filmmaker, photographer, and maker based in Alexandria, Virginia.

His work attends to the overlooked and the institutional. Working across documentary film, photography, watercolor, and fabricated objects, he returns again and again to transience and quiet endurance: the things and people at the edge of being forgotten, held in view a little longer. The sensibility owes something to mono no aware, the bittersweet awareness that everything passes.

His documentary Ready, Aim, Fire! Twenty-five Years of Army Refractive Surgery received Best of Show at the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting Film Festival in 2026. Ongoing photographic series include Transition, a book-in-progress on the movement from military to civilian life, and Machine Reliquary, on institutional machinery as artifact. His self-published artist book CHILDS END was completed in 2026.

Skurski is an ophthalmologist specializing in cornea and refractive surgery. He lives and works in Alexandria with his family.

CV

b. 1988, Chicago, IL
Resides and works in Alexandria, Virginia

EDUCATION

2015 — Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Nova Southeastern University
2011 — BA, Health Communications and Rhetoric, University of Illinois

FILM

2026 — Ready, Aim, Fire! Twenty-five Years of Army Refractive Surgery. Documentary, [9:54]. Director, producer, editor.
2026 — Ready. Aim. Fire. — The Birth of Army Laser Vision Surgery. Documentary, festival edition, [10:05]. Director, producer, editor.
2026 — From My Perspective [Working title]. Three-part interview film series with military pilots. Director, producer, editor. In post-production.

SCREENINGS AND FESTIVALS

2026 — Film Festival, American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting — Best of Show

PUBLICATIONS

2026 — "Custodian." 365tomorrows, March 2026. Short fiction.
2026 — "The cataract surgery waste hiding in the trash bin." KevinMD.com, July 2026. Reported feature.

ARTIST BOOKS AND ZINES

2026 — CHILDS END. Artist book, self-published (Blurb), edition of 3.
2026 — DOC NYC — Pink Pill World Premiere. Self-published photo zine, edition of one.
2026 — Shelf Life. Self-published photo zine.

OBJECTS

2025 — Callsigns Sightless, Mikki, Raptor, Falcon (chairs, nos. 1–4). Spray paint, primer, marker, and vinyl on plastic folding chairs.
2025 — Crew timepieces (watches). Ink and etching on Casio F-91WB wristwatches, set of 4.
2025 — Crew glasses (safety glasses). Ink and etching on Magid Gemstone Y50 safety glasses with paracord lanyard.

PHOTOGRAPHY - SELECTED SERIES

Transition — ongoing. The passage out of military service into civilian life; book in progress.
Machine Reliquary — ongoing. Obsolete and institutional machinery as specimen.
Specimen Cabinet — ongoing.
Glasshouse — ongoing.
Nocturnes — ongoing.

COLLECTIONS

Private collections, United States.

AWARDS

2026 — Best of Show, Film Festival, American Academy of Ophthalmology

PROFESSIONAL

Ophthalmologist, cornea and refractive surgeon. Medical Director, Warfighter Refractive Surgery Program and Research Center, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.