R. J. Kern’s work has been featured in National Geographic; in group exhibitions at the Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art (Tbilisi), the National Portrait Gallery (London), and the Yixian International Photo Festival (Anhui, China); and in solo exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography (Winchester, Massachusetts) and the Plains Art Museum (Fargo). Public collections include Minneapolis Institute of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. R. J. was a 2017 CENTER Choice Award winner, a finalist for the 2017 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, and a Critical Mass Top 50 for 2018 and 2021. He has two monographs, The Sheep and the Goats (2017) and The Unchosen Ones (2021).