Fri. Dec. 12 6–10 pm
TheTimesCenter
242 West 41st Street
New York City
For more information
[email protected]
212 857 0001
To register: http://www.icp.org/events
THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY PRESENTS A TWO-DAY SYMPOSIUM TO EXAMINE THE CHANGING NATURE OF DOCUMENTARY PRACTICE, BRINGING TOGETHER PHOTOGRAPHERS, ARTISTS, WRITERS, CURATORS, AND SCHOLARS IN A SERIES OF PANELS AND CONVERSATIONS.
The term documentary now encompasses a more diverse set of approaches than ever before. While the intersection of “document” and “art” is not a new phenomenon, and has often occurred at moments of social, political, and economic crisis, an unprecedented slippage between these realms has become evident during the past two decades.
The symposium asks: Has this shift provoked a crisis in documentary or reinvigorated its practice? Does the blurring of “documentary” and “art” attest to the failure of traditional documentary forms, or does it merely evince a drive to produce socially and politically relevant work, whatever the context? Have documentary tendencies in art diluted the effectiveness or truth-value of socially engaged, “concerned” documentary? Or has the very impossibility of objective truth itself become a trope?
In light of these questions, it seems useful to revisit the very nature and definition of documentary. What is Real? will investigate the continued relevance of documentary photography in light of its history, contemporary trends, and the role of the personal and subjective in documentary.
Fri. Dec. 12 6–10 pm
6:00pm | Opening Remarks, Buzz Hartshorn, Ehrenkranz Director, ICP
Sponsor’s remarks, Bjorn Edlund, Shell
6:30–7:30pm | Keynote: “Of Veils and Mourning: Fazal Sheikh’s Widowed Images,” Eduardo Cadava
7:45–9:45pm | Redefining Documentary: The State of Documentary Photography Today will examine the extent to which the model of objective documentary practice is still relevant, how photographers have responded to trenchant critiques first launched in the 1970s, and where the future of documentary lies.
Geoffrey Batchen, Susan Meiselas, Allan Sekula, moderated by Brian Wallis
Saturday, Dec. 13, 9am–5pm
9:00am | Welcome remarks
9:30–11:30am | Community in the Digital Age: Personal Memoirs and the Subjective Documentary will explore the impact of digital and on-line technologies on documentary photography, especially the way they have encouraged more subjective and autobiographical approaches.
Nayland Blake, David Deitcher, Sarah Schulman
11:30–12:30 Lunch break
12:30–2:30pm | Who Needs Truth Anyway? The Uses and Ethics of Documentary will address a fundamental question: Can documentary practice continue to be held to the notions of truth, evidence, and witness? Or has the awareness and acceptance of subjectivity in documentary negated its evidentiary and testimonial possibilities?
Ariella Azoulay, Philip Gourevitch, An-My Lê, Thomas Levin, moderated by Thomas Keenan
2:30–4:30pm | Art versus Document: An (Un)comfortable Union? will consider the ways that both documentary photographers and artists working in a documentary mode have addressed questions of narrative, partisanship, and the effectiveness of documentary work.
Okwui Enwezor, Ken Light, Walid Raad, Martha Rosler, moderated by Maria Lind
4:30–5pm | Response and summation
Image above: © Fazal Sheikh, The Victor Weeps: Afghanistan (Abdul Aziz holding a photograph of his brother, Mula Abdul Hakim), 1997, International Center of Photography
Made possible by Shell
For more information go to: To register: http://www.icp.org/events
