Jack Toolin holds a BFA in Photography from Ohio University and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from San José State University. Studying under the late Barbara DeGenevieve — a pioneering feminist artist — shaped his commitment to socially and politically engaged work.

Toolin was a founding member of C5, a groundbreaking new media collaborative whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with a landmark appearance in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. His landscape photography project Perfect View, driven by locative media, is featured in Christiane Paul's seminal survey Digital Art.

His current photographic practice centers on what he calls the "fringe economy" — an ongoing investigation into aspects of economic precarity, from empty retails spaces to the quest for compensation via tip jars. In his ongoing series Profit and Loss, Toolin steps outside of straight documentary, employing digital compositing, graphic elements, and text to indicate the stress of market-driven life, “psychoeconomics.”

Toolin is Adjunct Associate Professor at NYU and Pace University, where he teaches digital photography, design, and media studies.