Photo Focus Symposium: Second Centry

Available Today! FotoFocus Symposium: Second Century: Photography, Feminism, Politics Six New Videos ft. Tabitha Soren, Justine Kurland, Aruna D'Souza, Laura Gómez, Natalie Bookchin, Nora Khan, the FemFour, and many more

Shooting America Keynote address with Tabitha Soren (Photographer) and Justine Kurland (Photographer). Pictured above. Woman with a Camera Panel moderated by Prudence Peiffer (Senior Editor at Artforum) with Makeda Best (Curator of Photography for Harvard Art Museums), Carmen Winant (Artist and Writer, Assistant Professor of Visual Studies and Contemporary Art History at CCAD and Dean at SSPS), Claire Lehmann (Artist, Writer, Curator). Women of Latin American Film Panel moderated by Michelle Farrell (Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Fairfield University) with Diana Vargas (Artistic Director of Havana Film Festival New York), Laura Gómez (Director and Actor), and Ana Katz (Writer, Director, Actor). Photography in an Intersectional Field Talk by Aruna D’Souza (Contemporary Writer on feminism, politics, and art). Gender and Imaging in the Online Realm Panel moderated by Kate Palmer Albers (Associate Professor of Art History at School of Arts) with Natalie Bookchin (Artist and Associate Professor of Media and Associate Chair of the Visual Arts Department at MGSA), and Nora Khan (Writer and Contributing Editor at Rhizome). Still They Persist with FemFour Panel moderated by Steven Matijcio (Curator at the Contemporary Arts Center) with Sara M. Vance Waddell (FemFour Founder and Collector), Cal Cullen, (Artist, Curator and Executive Director of Wave Pool), Jaime L.M. Thompson (Curator of Education at the Contemporary Arts Center), Maria Seda-Reeder (Writer, Curator, Educator).

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Symposium Highlights

Aruna D'Souza opened her talk with this Beyoncé .gif

Comment by Aruna D’Souza: Photography in an Intersectional Field What does it mean to make images post-Ferguson, post-Black Lives Matter, post-Standing Rock, post-Trump, post-pussy hats, post-bathroom bills? This talk explored ideas of how feminism—in no small part thanks to photography—has not just expanded to embrace other struggles, but has in fact intersected with, and become infinitely more urgent and complicated because of them.

Panel: Woman with a Camera Moderated by Prudence Peiffer (Senior Editor at Artforum) with Makeda Best (Curator of Photography for Harvard Art Museums), Carmen Winant (Artist and Writer, Assistant Professor of Visual Studies and Contemporary Art History at CCAD and Dean at SSPS), Claire Lehmann (Artist, Writer, Curator). What, if anything, does it mean to be a woman photographer? This panel reconsidered the work of historical figures such as Berenice Abbott and Diane Arbus as well as the contemporary practice of artists such as Anne Collier and Zoe Leonard, probing the paradoxes of the term “woman photographer,” as well as the personal narratives that accompany and complicate the common trope of a woman with a camera. Panel: Still They Persist, with FemFour Moderated by Steven Matijcio (Curator at the Contemporary Arts Center) with Sara M. Vance Waddell (FemFour Founder and Collector), Cal Cullen, (Artist, Curator and Executive Director of Wave Pool), Jaime L.M. Thompson (Curator of Education at the Contemporary Arts Center), Maria Seda-Reeder (Writer, Curator, Educator). FemFour, a group of socially minded members of the Cincinnati arts community, assembled a traveling archive of posters and placards, sculptures, textiles, and photo/video documentation from the Women’s March of 2017. This continually evolving archive, on view at the Contemporary Arts Center during the symposium, attempted to keep alive a message of ongoing resistance. FemFour discussed their motivations and their process as part of this undertaking, as well as examined the nature of politically activated objects, their preservation and circulation.

About the Symposium “Second Century” plays with the title of Simone de Beauvoir’s seminal text, The Second Sex, of 1949, a book that dealt with the treatment of women throughout history and marks the starting point of second-wave feminism. Second-wave feminism built upon first-wave feminism’s concern for suffrage and equal property rights to focus more broadly on sexuality, family, workplace rights, and other forms of inequality, both tacit and legal. Now, well down the path of third-wave feminism (or fourth-wave feminism, or postfeminism, as third-wave feminism is by definition hard to define), the current socio-political climate broadly embraces different feminine identities, including queer and transgender. Second Century: Photography, Feminism, Politics acknowledged the absorption and application of myriad feminist ideals and practices at the beginning of a second century of organized and evolved feminist approaches to art and politics. Second Century panels, comprised of international as well as local participants, explored feminist approaches to photography and lens-based art at the intersection of current political concerns, with topics ranging from the January 21, 2017, Women’s March on Washington and subsequent political activism; Latin American films by female directors; and feminist engagement of photography both as conceptual art practice and widespread implication through social media practices. The symposium also featured a prominent keynote speaker.

Anne Collier, Woman with a Camera (35 mm, diptych), 2009. Inkjet print, 20⅜ × 24 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Anton Kern Gallery, New York; Galerie Neu, Berlin; The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow; and Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles. © Anne Collier

About FotoFocus Founded in 2010, FotoFocus is the largest, Cincinnati-based non-profit arts organization whose mission is to present the finest in contemporary photography and lens-based art. FotoFocus supports and curates artistically, intellectually, and academically rigorous exhibitions and programs that are accessible, educational, and enriching to a diverse public. The organization celebrates and champions photography as the medium of our time and aims to encourage dialogue about the world through the art of photography. Programming includes the FotoFocus Biennials, the Lecture and Visiting Artist Series, a series that has invited more than 35 internationally-renowned photographers to Cincinnati. Since its inception, FotoFocus has presented more than 300 projects, worked with over 100 partners and provided support and funding to over 150 programs. More information about FotoFocus can be found at www.FotoFocusCincinnati.org. Engage with FotoFocus on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.