University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Carey received her MFA from the University at Buffalo in photography in 1978, with a concentration in art history and museum studies. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery was the first to collect her work, exhibiting it in the seminal and visionary "In Western New York" (1977), a bi-annual exhibition series begun by Linda Cathcart which continues today. Her first solo exhibit - Self-Portraits - at Hallwalls (1978) won her a CAPS grant. Carey's first public exhibition was on a Buffalo city bus with Cindy Sherman (1976). Her work is in the permanent collections of over twenty art and photography museums.