Photography and Community
Community-based photography provides a lens through which to record the intergenerational visual history of people and places as seen from the artist’s insider perspective. Chicago Humanities Festival convenes a panel discussion on how artistic concerns—from identity, inclusion and representation, to ethics and consent—relate to the traditions of documentary photography. Join photographers and filmmakers Louis Massiah, Carlos Javier Ortiz, Wendy Ewald, and Deborah Willis for a conversation about photography for and by community members.
This program is presented in partnership with the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, in conjunction with the multi-partner, multi-venue exhibition Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40.
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The Chicago Humanities Festival connects people to the ideas that shape and define us, and promotes the lifelong exploration of what it means to be human. As a Toward Common Cause programmatic partner, CHF is presenting a suite of conversations that feature MacArthur Fellows.
Wendy Ewald is an artist defined by collaboration. Over a 50-year career she has distributed cameras to children and adults, teaching them rudimentary photography skills and asking them to photograph their lives—the quotidian and extraordinary, what happens during their days and their dreams. When asked which aspects of her work are too often omitted from…
It’s not an overstatement to call Deborah Willis the godmother of Black photography. As a scholar, archivist, author, curator, and artist, she has discovered, researched, and shared the work of thousands of black photographers from throughout the United States from the 1840s to the present. Her work as a scholar has made visible the lives…
The Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago is a site for rigorous inquiry and exchange that encourages the examination of complex issues through the lens of art objects and artistic practice. Plan your visit Visits to the Smart Museum of Art are free, but reservations are recommended. Open Tuesday–Sunday 10 am–5 pm;…