Photography can be a disruptive medium that challenges official narratives, raises questions about our society, about power, authority and political regimes. These different notions will be discussed this Tuesday in a symposium entitled Photography Expanded: Counter Histories symposium and by the Magnum Foundation at the New School, New York.
“Experimenting with new approaches to visual storytelling” is the key word framing the symposium. Concretely, the event brings artists, thinkers, scientists and students to think on several how photography, political and social issues interacts.
A speech by Colin Stearns, assistant professor of photography at New School will open the day, followed by a presentation of the guest invited by Magnum Foundation curator and executive director Kristen Lubben. To be noted, the video presentation of Counter Histories by American artist Alexandra Bell revealing the common and racially use of words and images in medias.
Photographer and writer Tomas Van Houtryve will also show his study on photographic archives of the Mexican-American border that helped fictionalizing Californian identity. Writer Ariel Godlberg will read poetry about the work of Berenice Abbott and Elizabeth McCausland.
Here is the full program:
9:00 – 9:30 Doors open, coffee
9:30 – 9:35 Colin Stearns, Welcome from New School
9:40 – 10:00 Kristen Lubben, Welcome from Magnum Foundation
10:05 – 10:35 Laura Wexler : Frederick Douglass and alternative paths for photo
10:40 – 10:50 Sim Chi Yin : Reading of letter to her father, Cold War and family history in Malaysia
10:55 – 11:35 Augmented Histories: Robert Pluma, Hector Canales, Nicole Marroquin, Village Live
11:40 – 11:50 Alexandra Bell : video presentation of Counter Histories public poster project
11:55 – 12:00 Wrap for Lunch KL & Invitation to Interference Archive by Ryan Buckley and Nora Almeida
12-1 pm break
1:10-1:15 Kristen Lubben – general presentation
1:20-1:55 Nick Mirzoeff : Why counter histories matter now and how this is a useful framework for reconceiving what’s possible and what work photography can do
2-2:10 To be confirmed.
2:15 – 2:45 Tomas Van Houtryve : Photographing along 19th c border between US and Mexico and the fictionalization of California history
2:50 – 3:00 Ariel Goldberg : poetry reading about Berenice Abbott & Elizabeth McCausland
3:05-3:40 Remi Onabanjo and Mimi Cherono Ng’ok (Countering the erased story of a disappeared Ugandan student from the 1970s) (30 min)
3:45 – 4:15 Susan Meiselas conclusion and Q&A.
4:20 – 4:30 Closing
The event is free to all. Registration are necessary.
The program is organized by the Magnum Foundation in collaboration with Parsons School of Design at The New School, and featured as part of The New School’s Nth Degree Series: Creative Minds Creating Change. Supported in part by The Fledgling Fund. This article is published with Magnum Foundation.
