events & groups
IRIS Nights Lecture Series (Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8pm)
    |
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Annenberg Space for Photography offers live programming through our IRIS Nights lecture series. IRIS Nights is a public program offered free of charge, by online reservation on a first-come, first-served basis. The series brings to life the featured exhibit with hour-long lectures by the photographers featured in the Photography Space exhibits as well as by other notable guest artists and experts. These programs give attendees unique access to the artists in the intimate setting of the Photography Space.
Lectures typically sell out each week but we do accept standbys on the day of the event. PLEASE NOTE: The digital content in our central Digital Gallery is suspended at 5pm on Thursdays to prepare for our IRIS Nights lectures.
Enjoy the Past Lectures section for videos of our previous lectures.
Lecture Series Schedule and Information:
Claudia Kunin
Ghosts, Memories and Mirrors
Thursday, February 2, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, January 25 at 12pm PT and Thursday, January 26 at 9:30am PT.
Photographer Claudia Kunin launched her career in 1976 when she was first published in Rolling Stone magazine. She pursued commercial photography for the next 30 years with intermittent shows of her fine art, which is now her primary artistic pursuit. Her bodies of work, include Revenant, 3D Ghost Stories, 3D Holy Ghost Stories and 3D Family Ghost Stories. She has had shown her work all over the world, including New York City, Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles.
Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Eyemazing, Camera Work, Focus and most recently in B&W and Color magazines. She was the recipient of two awards in the 2010 Prix de la Photographie Paris for her fine art. Kunin’s work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Museum of Photographic Arts. Her archive will be housed in the Smithsonian Institute of American History’s photography collection.
In her lecture, Kunin will discuss addressing visual concepts of ghosts and memory and present images from her four bodies of work as well as some of her recent animations.
Jodi Cobb
Inside Closed Worlds
Thursday, February 9, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, February 1 at 12pm PT and Thursday, February 2 at 9:30am PT.
Please note that this lecture was originally scheduled to run during BEAUTY CULTURE but was rescheduled due to technical difficulties. Guests who were in attendance that night have been given priority seating and, because of this, ticket availability for this event is limited.
Jodi Cobb has spent three decades as a staff photographer with National Geographic magazine and has worked in more than 60 countries. She was the first photographer to document the hidden lives of the women of Saudi Arabia but she is perhaps best known for her book Geisha: The Life, The Voices, the Art which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won the American Society of Media Photographers Outstanding Achievement Award.
She has been honored by the National Press Photographers Association's Pictures of the Year International competition and the World Press Photo award. Cobb was the first woman to be named the White House News Photographer's Association "Photographer of the Year."
In this presentation, Cobb retraces her groundbreaking career, including the project “The Enigma of Beauty,” an exploration through 10 countries on six continents to investigate cultural notions of beauty and the science behind sexual attraction.
Ted Grudowski, Mike Pucher, Christopher Schneberger
Three Views on 3D
Thursday, February 16, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, February 8 at 12pm PT and Thursday, February 9 at 9:30am PT.
Ted Grudowski, Mike Pucher, and Christopher Schneberger will speak about their photography and the role that digital technology plays in their imagery. Images will be shown in both 2D and 3D, including multimedia 3D slide shows
Grudowski has been working with 3D photography for nearly 25 years. He has exhibited around the Pacific Northwest at places such as the San Juan Island Museum of Art, Sea-Tac International Airport and the 3D Center of Art & Photography in Portland, Oregon. In addition to his 3D work, his photo credits include several book covers, coverage of U2's 1997 PopMart Tour and album covers for artists such as Bjork and Pennywise.
Inspired by classic still life photography, Mike Pucher uses 3D photography as a way to explore composition and influence the viewer's experience. After earning a BA in Photography from the Brooks Institute of Photography, he moved to Irvine, California. In his emerging career as a commercial photographer, his photographs have been used by partners including Honda R&D Americas, The Walt Disney Company and Wine Spectator. Pucher recently published his first book, a collection of 3D images called Flower Portraits.
Christopher Schneberger will speak about his work and the process of creating it from initial concept to fully realized project and installation. He will discuss stereophotography (3D) - the technical aspects, its role in his work, and its place in the fine art world. He will show his work from earlier years to the present, as well as the work of artists influential to his style.
Stanley Smith
Art and Artifice: Constructing Photographs
Thursday, February 23, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, February 15 at 12pm PT and Thursday, February 16 at 9:30am PT.
Stanley Smith has exhibited his work widely in galleries and museums all over the United States, most recently in the 2008 exhibition Smoke and Mirrors at the Seattle Art Museum and in 2009 at the University Art Gallery at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. He currently is Head of Collection Information and Access at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Prior to coming to the Getty Mr. Smith managed the digital photo studio for Seattle’s Experience Music Project where he was instrumental managing the digitization of EMP’s extensive collection.
These days, Photoshop has become a verb and every photograph can be suspected of stretching the truth. In his lecture, Smith will discuss this notion within the context of traditional photography but also in the context of his own transformation from taking photographs to making photographs. Smith’s digital “constructions” bear little resemblance to reality, but still embrace a photograph’s unique ability to record it. His reluctance to focus on a “decisive moment” is accommodated by a working method that is more aligned with less immediate forms of art such as painting or sculpture.
Andrea Galluzzo
Beyond The Photograph
Thursday, March 1, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, February 22 at 12pm PT and Thursday, February 23 at 9:30am PT.
Photographer Andrea Galluzzo began experimenting with the digital darkroom four years ago after working extensively with medium and large format cameras. The knowledge and experience she gained from chemical printing continues to influence the quality and craft of her current work. She attempts to push the boundaries of the photographic medium by taking a complex approach to her own images; building on the foundation of her photographs, she enhances them with illustration and iconic symbols in order to uncover their full story.
Galluzzo will share images from the series ”Know Myself In All My Parts,” which is the culmination of two and a half years of work. In addition to detailing the technical process used to create the images, she will also share the inspiration for the series: her own experience of uncovering the beauty and wisdom present in pain and struggle. She will discuss the artistic challenge of remaking her personal experience of transformative self-discovery.
Her work has been published in Black & White Magazine, selected as the recipient of an Ultimate Eye Foundation grant and exhibited in group and solo shows at Lightbox Gallery, the Spiva Arts Centers and Cameraworks Gallery.
Galluzzo currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
Douglas Prince
Evolving Vision: The Testimony of A Living Photo Fossil
Thursday, March 8, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, February 29 at 12pm PT and Thursday, March 1 at 9:30am PT.
Douglas Prince currently lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and teaches part-time at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester. He has been passionately engaged in creative photography and has taught for the last fifty years.
His work has appeared in numerous one-person and group exhibitions and is held in numerous private and museum collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Currier Museum of Art and the National Gallery, Canberra, Australia.
Beginning as a traditional photographer with medium format film cameras, he soon began to explore alternative visions: combining images in the darkroom and making photo-sculptures with images on film. In the late 1990s his photo explorations led him into digital image-making.
Todd Baxter
Anatomy of Process in the Digital Age
Thursday, March 15, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, March 7 at 12pm PT and Thursday, March 8 at 9:30am PT.
Prior to his photography career, Todd Baxter worked mostly in painting and collage, both of which continue to influence his current approach to fine art and commercial photography. Much of his work involves digital collage of elements from different photos into a single frame. Although some would say the artistry of Todd’s work is in his post-production use of Photoshop, he believes creative process relies as heavily on an intensive pre-production stage (one that involves pulling from fundamental artistic practices and traditions relevant to the subject matter).
For this discussion, Todd will show images from his body of work and his latest completed project “Owl Scouts: Lost in the Woods,” an award-winning narrative series. By exploring the journey to complete a controversial image in the series, Todd will discuss how his artistic process for making photographs, from pre-production to post-production, utilizes both the oldest and the most cutting-edge artistic techniques available.
Connie Imboden
Reflections
Thursday, March 22, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, March 14 at 12pm PT and Thursday, March 15 at 9:30am PT.
Connie Imboden has spent more than 30 years using photography to examine, distort and redefine the human body.
Imboden’s work is in the collections of many major museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the Bibliotheque Nationale in France and the Ludwig Museum in Germany. Her photographs have been exhibited in an extensive range of group and solo shows at galleries and museums thoughout Europe, the United States, South America and most recently China.
Her first book of images, Out of Darkness, won the Silver Medal in Switzerland’s “Schonste Bucher Aus Aller Welt (Most Beautiful Book in the World)” competition in 1993. Her most recent book, Reflections was released in 2009.
Imboden currently teaches photography at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where her experience as a photographer began, as well as many workshops around the world.
Imboden's photographs, seen through the camera and free from darkroom or computer enhancement, display the strangeness of reality in an age of digital manipulation. She will discuss the technical issues involved in relying on her vision to transform the subject matter and how an intuitive creative process has kept her fascinated in the same body of work throughout the years.
Richard Ehrlich
Ansel Adams Would Have Loved Photoshop
Thursday, March 29, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, March 21 at 12pm PT and Thursday, March 22 at 9:30am PT.
Photographer Richard Ehrlich’s goal, much like a painter's passion to lay down marks, comes from a desire to express internal feelings rather than to depict simply what is seen and as such provides an avenue for heightened awareness and self expression.
Rather than viewing digital optimization as pejorative or less meaningful than traditional techniques, Ehrlich has embraced the advancing technology with enthusiasm. For example, his Anatomia Digitale series depicts permutations and interpretations of radiological based images as a basis for artistic expression and celebration of the beauty of the human form. The Homage to Rothko series of Malibu skies represents a paean to one of his favorite painters whose work has been an inspirational foundation for many years. The Imaginary Place series conveys a sense of timelessness and ephemeral space.
These and other images have been the subject of over 30 gallery shows and the work is represented in the permanent collections in over 25 museums including Los Angeles County Museum, UCLA Hammer Museum, Smithsonian Institute, George Eastman House, Denver Art Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jewish Museum New York and Jewish Museum Berlin, among others.
Julie Blackmon
The Power of Now and Other Tales From Home
Thursday, April 12, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, April 4 at 12pm PT and Thursday, April 5 at 9:30am PT.
The oldest of nine children and now a mother of three, photographer Julie Blackmon binds her past to her present with a portrait of domesticity depicting a compound of anxiety, ambivalence, and amusement.
Blackmon was named American Photo's "Emerging Photographer of 2008" and one of PDN's "30 New and Emerging Photographers" in 2007. She has been the recipient of various awards including first prize from The Santa Fe Center for Photography in the Project Competition in 2006. Blackmon's work is included in numerous museums and public collections including that of George Eastman House, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City and Portland Art Museum.
Julie Blackmon will discuss her start as a photographer, her process, influences and the source of her inspiration.
Nadine Boughton
Adventures in Digital Collage
Thursday, April 19, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, April 11 at 12pm PT and Thursday, April 12 at 9:30am PT.
Nadine Boughton has worked as a fine art photographer and collage artist for decades. She became interested in digital imaging eight years ago. Her digital collages are constructed using vintage materials from popular culture - magazines, cookbooks, scrapbooks, comics. The flatbed scanner acts as a camera and the collage is crafted in Photoshop using a variety of compositing techniques.
Along with sharing her artistic development and process, Boughton will present her newest portfolio, “True Adventures in Better Homes,” which earned her a place in the “Top 50” at Photolucida’s Critical Mass 2011 competition. The art depicts a collision of two worlds: men’s adventure magazines meets Better Homes and Gardens. Her interest is in the culture of the 1950’s and early ’60‘s. She uses humor to probe the collective psyche.
Boughton grew up in Rochester, New York, under the shadow of George Eastman’s Kodak Tower. She studied briefly with Garry Winogrand during her Leica years. Her work is exhibited widely in galleries and museums. She currently lives in Gloucester, MA where she teaches photography, collage and creative writing.
Angela Bacon-Kidwell
“Why am I here and where am I going?” An exploration of self-awareness, creativity and temporary circumstances.
Thursday, April 26, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, April 18 at 12pm PT and Thursday, April 19 at 9:30am PT.
In her lecture, Angela Bacon-Kidwell will discuss the ways she has navigated her life through visual expression. Her work emerges from her journey of recovering a sense of self, strength and spirituality through an examination of her identities as daughter, granddaughter, wife, mother and artist. She will present work from the acclaimed series Traveling Dream, which features surreal, dreamlike imagery rich in metaphor, as well as from Traces of Existence. This most recent series explores the complex relationship between the fragility of life and the finality of death. Angela will share some of the answers she has received to the “big” questions surrounding her life while employing photography as a means of artistic and personal growth.
Angela Bacon-Kidwell is an award-winning photographer and visual artist who lives and works in Texas. Her photographic work has received numerous awards and honors and been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally. Recent recognitions include Nomination for the Santa Fe Prize for Photography in 2011, Finalist for the John Clarence Laughlin Award, First place in the Palm Springs Photo Festival and First Place in the Texas Photographic Society International Competition.
Josef Astor
On Assignment: Agenda vs Serendipity
Thursday, May 10, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, May 2 at 12pm PT and Thursday, May 3 at 9:30am PT.
After moving from Ohio to New York, photographer Josef Astor worked as an apprentice for Irving Penn, Deborah Turbeville and Angus McBean.
In 1985, he opened his studio in Carnegie Hall and launched his theatrically staged, historically informed photography. Astor is acclaimed for his portraits of individuals from the world of music, architecture, dance, theatre and art.
Astor’s photography has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Newsweek, GQ, Esquire and Rolling Stone to name a few. His advertising clients range from AT & T to Bergdorf Goodman, Absolut Vodka and Phillip Morris.
His work has been widely collected and exhibited, and included in shows at The International Center of Photography, Julie Saul Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery, and 'Vanity Fair Portraits' at the National Portrait Gallery in London. He received the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography. Astor is currently on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York. His directing debut was the documentary 'Lost Bohemia' which premiered in 2010 and won a Special Jury Prize at DOC-NYC Festival.
Most of Astor’s images in the exhibit were assignments and span a broad spectrum of solutions to often challenging parameters of a publication's needs. He will recount successes as well as failures in navigating the precarious conditions that surround an assignment; always with the goal of yielding an inspiring image that will satisfy the agenda of the client without stifling the serendipity of the moment.
Lauren Marsolier
Transition to a Digital World
Thursday, May 17, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, May 9 at 12pm PT and Thursday, May 10 at 9:30am PT.
Lauren Marsolier was born in Paris, France in 1972. After studying Economics and graduating from the Grande École Sup de Co Lyon, she decided to pursue her early passion for photography, and took classes at Parsons, the International Center of Photograph and the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Marsolier’s latest project, which began in 2005, addresses the psychological experience of transition and our conflicting relationship to a world that is becoming increasingly fast-paced and dematerialized. Referencing our present-day simulated environments, she creates photographic landscapes by combining different shots in a way that deliberately lets us suspect their fabricated nature. Unlike traditional photography that seizes an instant of reality, her images are built over the course of several months and convey a sense of timelessness that prompts the viewer to contemplate them as one would a painting. In this lecture she will talk about her work and explain how the digital medium has been an essential component of her art practice.
Marsolier lives in Los Angeles. Her work is represented by the Robert Berman Gallery.
Ann George
Fearless Photography
Thursday, May 24, 2012 6:30-8:00pm
Online registration for this event begins Wednesday, May 16 at 12pm PT and Thursday, May 17 at 9:30am PT.
Ann George is a visual artist who melds pixels, paper, and paint to create compelling photographic fusions that celebrate her native Louisiana as well as the people, places and stories that move her. Her photographic approach is mysterious and poetic and continues a pictorial tradition important in the history of photography. She continues to create images that call to her vintage eye, propelling her to seek different approaches and techniques.
George grew up with people and places that grounded her roots deep into the southern soil and her heart into Louisiana’s personality. She senses the South, within its old things that still have purpose, its suffocating summer nights and in the storytelling beneath its branches of culture and history.
In an effort to create images that reflect a sense of nostalgia, George blends modern Photoshop techniques, oils, glazes, and waxes to create texture and depth. She make a humble attempt to portray the role of inspirational storyteller through imagery and look for ways to satisfy her vintage eye in the camera, in the computer, in the printing and in the paint.
Ann George has won numerous awards both nationally and internationally, participated in exhibitions throughout the United States and has been published in multiple periodicals.