Photo-Poetics: An Anthology

In conjunction with Photo-Poetics: An Anthology, the Guggenheim will host a series of panel discussions with artists featured in the exhibition. Drawing on the legacies of Conceptualism and exploring a variety of photographic mediums, these artists attempt to rematerialize the photograph through meticulous printing, using film and other disappearing photo technologies, and creating photo objects.

The participants discuss their exhibited work, followed by a group conversation moderated by curators Jennifer Blessing and Susan Thompson addressing themes related to photographic practices today, including issues of identity, representation, reproduction, and the circulation of images in contemporary visual culture.

These discussions are part of the Elaine Terner Cooper Education Fund Conversations with Contemporary Artists series and are followed by a reception and exhibition viewing. Tickets available via links below. Free for students with RSVP.


Lisa Oppenheim, Sara VanDerBeek
Wednesday, January 27, 6:30pm

Elad Lassry, Erin Shirreff, Kathrin Sonntag
Wednesday, February 24, 6:30pm

Claudia Angelmaier, Erica Baum, Moyra Davey
Wednesday, March 9, 6:30pm


Claudia Angelmaier lives and works in Berlin. She traces the photographic representation of artworks across the pages of textbooks, classroom slides, coffee table monographs, and postcards.

Erica Baum lives and works in New York. She takes the printed page as her primary subject, photographing fragments of found language at close range, and her works often operate simultaneously as both photograph and poem.

Moyra Davey lives and works in New York. Inspired by a deep interest in the process of reading and writing, the artist’s work in photography and video reflects an interest in slowness, process, and the accumulated effects of time on objects and people.

Elad Lassry lives and works in Los Angeles. He positions his photographic works as “pictures,” entities that operate simultaneously as both objects and images. In doing so, he shifts their relationship to the viewer, inviting a broader examination of how photographs are seen and understood.

Lisa Oppenheim lives and works in New York. Her work investigates photography’s material concerns, tracing the technological processes, consumption, and circulation of photographs throughout the medium’s history.

Erin Shirreff lives and works in New York. Her work in photography, video, and sculpture reflects on the distance between an object and its representation, exploring the capacities of photography in conveying a sculptural experience.

Kathrin Sonntag lives and works in Berlin. Her photographs and slide show installations regularly confound perception of illusionistic space and undermine assumptions about truth in photography.

Sara VanDerBeek lives and works in New York. Her photographs utilize a variety of formal strategies and references yet remain consistently engaged with issues of memory and the experience of time and space.

Photo-Poetics: An Anthology is supported in part by Affirmation Arts Fund and The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. The Leadership Committee for Photo-Poetics: An Anthology, chaired by Rona Citrin, is gratefully acknowledged for its support, with special thanks to Erica Gervais and Ted Pappendick, as well as to Lisa and Richard Baker, Angelo K H Chan and Frederick Wertheim, Jeffrey Citrin, Manuel de Santaren, Ellen and Richard Kelson, Jill and Peter Kraus, Toby Devan Lewis, Ann and Mel Schaffer, Patty and Howard Silverstein, Cristina von Bargen, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Ann Cook and Charley Moss, Susan and Arthur Fleischer, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Lauren and Scott Pinkus, Melissa Schiff Soros, and Barbara Toll. Additional funding is provided by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s Photography Committee.

The Sackler Center for Arts Education is a gift of the Mortimer D. Sackler Family. Endowment funding is provided by The Engelberg Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, The Elaine Terner Cooper Foundation, and the Esther Simon Charitable Trust. Educational activities and/or public programs are made possible in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, The Hilla von Rebay Foundation, and The Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation. Funding is also provided by Deutsche Bank, the Edith and Frances Mulhall Achilles Memorial Fund, the Rose M. Badgeley Residuary Charitable Trust, and The Barker Welfare Foundation. Additional support from the Jane A. Lehman and Alan G. Lehman Foundation and the Metzger-Price Fund, Inc. is gratefully acknowledged. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation thanks the members of the Education Committee for their support.