Colleen Mullins' work, for the last several years, has focused on an area of Sonoma County in which her family camped in their VW van in the 1970's, based both on personal exploration and an archive of her father’s work dating back to the 1940’s. In addition, she has work of great breadth, from flamboyant high-end luxury cruise ship revelers to the urban forest of New Orleans, as well as work in the book arts.

A 3rd generation San Franciscan, Mullins recently relocated to her hometown from a 22 year stint in Minnesota, where she taught college level photography and book arts until last year. She was the 2013 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board (her fourth), a two-time recipient of the McKnight Artist Fellowship (1998 and 2011), and a recipient of the Women's Studio Workshop Production Grant, with which she produced a limited edition artist book, Opening Day. Opening Day recounts her father's crossing of the Golden Gate Bridge on Opening Day, crossing together on the 50th Anniversary, and the crossed wires that occurred when her father succumbed to senile dementia.  Her work is in several national museum collections including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Southeast Museum of Photography.