An Inside Look at our Photo Lecture Series
Art School’s Photo Lecture series curator and organizer, Cecilia Borgenstam, gives a sneak peek of our upcoming lecturer lineup. She also writes about the ideas and inspiration behind the program.
The Photo Lecture Series occurs on the last Thursday of every month (more info here).
Guest written by Cecilia Borgenstam.
Johnnie Chatman, Self portrait, John Ford Point, 2018
Image description: a black and white landscape photograph of an expansive, barren terrain. Large vertical rock formations protrude from the sandy earth. A faraway figure is almost centered in the picture plane, small and silhouetted.
Art School’s Photo Lecture Series aims is to curate an intimate and safe space for emerging photographers, where they can share their work and creative process with an audience while engaging in thoughtful conversations around their practice. We want to bring diversity to the forefront by inviting photographers who all bring a very unique and distinct perspective to the medium, whether they work with documentary or fine art, social issues of introspection.
It’s been a year, and our “new normal” has just been plain “normal” for a while now. We have learned to accept new challenges and to adapt along the way, and to never, ever take anything for granted ever again. As we settled into new routines, and accepted life with restrictions and often isolation, the need for new forms of interactions became more prevalent.
Wesaam Al-Badry, Am I essential or expendable, 2020
Image description: a masculine farm worker wearing a baseball cap with the American Flag and a red checkered shirt reaches up into a tree full of fruit.
The concept of lectures, a space where people who have something of educational value to share with an audience is not new or groundbreaking. But the Photo Lecture Series was born out of my own deep need for connecting with people during the pandemic, especially those whose work inspires me, and who’s creativity has engaged and energized me during the darkest moments of this past year.
By sharing this connection with other people, it is my hope that you too, wherever you are, will find inspiration and solace, and can take comfort in the knowledge that you are not alone, nor do you have to grit it out by yourself.
The decision to make this a pay-what-you-wish program for as long as Covid restrictions prevent us from meeting in person was an easy one. We didn’t want to alienate anyone by making the program exclusive by signaling to people that you can only be part of this group if you have the monetary means to join.
We wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without the generosity of the artists who have agreed to participate in the 2021 program. It goes without saying that my admiration and respect for every single one of them have reached even higher levels and my gratitude knows no boundaries.
The roster for 2021 is finalized and we are excited to introduce the spring program! Here’s an overview.
Carly Cram, In The Weeds
Image description: thick, tall grasses and stalks of greenery and wheat-colored plants fill the bottom two-thirds of the photograph, against a very blue sky. A senior male with a long white beard and hair is nestled in the plants, almost blending in.
In February, Wesaam Al Badry kicked off our first lecture by sharing work from his series on fruit and vegetable pickers in Central Valley, whom he photographed during the first month of Covid. In March we will follow up with Carly Cram, who will talk about how her photographic process resembles that of building digital sculptures by stitching parts of an image together to create the “full picture.”
Rachel Fein-Smolinksi, Love in the Scoliosis Clinic, 1971, reproduced 2019, Central image sourced Archives and Special Collections at SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Health Sciences Library
Image description: a black and white photograph of a figure shot from the ribs down, wearing only undergarments that say “love” and knee-high socks against a white sheet. It is collaged into an aqua and red checkered background, which is collaged onto a page of text and images.
In April, we will look at the work of freelance photographer Jessica Chou, who has an extensive editorial client list, and see how her use of color, form and composition informs her creative decisions. In May, we will meet Johnnie Chatman who investigates how he as a young black man literally and figuratively inserts himself into the (predominantly white male) tradition of the American landscape photography. And in June we will round off this first chapter of the series with photographer and multimedia artist Rachel Fein-Smolinski who’s work uses science fiction, biology and personal narrative to address issues embedded in the Western healthcare system.
Please stay tuned for an update on the rest of the 2021 schedule which will follow promptly.
For more info and to register for an upcoming talk, visit our Photo Lecture Series page!