The Moon, Lunar Orbiter 1, NASA, 1966.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 –Thursday, March 3, 2011
9:00 am–6:00 pm

FREE

Theresa Lang Center
The New School
55 W 13th Street
New York, New York

The Photography Program in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons the New School for Design, The Aperture Foundation, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, and The Shpilman Institute for Photography have joined forces to organize The Photographic Universe: A Conference, a unique two-day symposium that will bring together a range of leading practitioners, scientists, theoreticians, historians, and philosophers, drawing from the faculty at Parsons, professionals in the science and technology fields, as well as prominent experts from external institutions, to consider and reflect on current discussions in photography at a pivotal moment in its history.

The unique format of the conference will consist of one-on-one conversations between two individuals from disparate professional and research backgrounds. Each speaker will present a ten-minute presentation on the subject of photography, followed by twenty-minute dialogue responding to each other’s presentation. Each day will conclude with a Keynote lecture by a prominent expert in the field.

Wednesday, March 2 – Art & Philosophy

9:00 AM-10:00 AM
Coffee & Bagels

10:15 AM-11:15 AM
Charlotte Cotton with David Reinfurt

11:15 AM-12:15 PM
Andrea Geyer with Susie Linfield

1:45 PM-2:45 PM
Walter Benn Michaels with James Welling

2:45 PM-3:45 PM
Penelope Umbrico with Anne Collins Goodyear

3:45 PM-4:45 PM
Susan Meiselas with Chris Boot

Thursday, March 3 – Science & Technology

9:00 AM-10:00 AM
Coffee & Bagels

10:15 AM-10:15 AM
Richard Benson with Frank Cost

11:15 AM-12:15 PM
Simone Douglas with Michael T. Jones

1:45 PM-2:45 PM
Anthony Aziz with Douglas Lanman

2:45 PM-3:45 PM
Wafaa Bilal with Virgina Rutledge

3:45 PM-4:45 PM
Trevor Paglen with Julia Bryan Wilson

5:00PM-6:30PM
Closing reception

The Moon, Lunar Orbiter 1, NASA, 1966.

The Photography Program in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons the New School for Design, The Aperture Foundation, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, and The Shpilman Institute for Photography have joined forces to organize The Photographic Universe: A Conference, a unique two-day symposium that will bring together a range of leading practitioners, scientists, theo­reticians, historians, and philosophers, drawing from the faculty at Parsons, professionals in the science and technology fields, as well as prominent experts from external institutions, to consider and reflect on current discussions in photog­raphy at a pivotal moment in its history. This unprecedented conference will take place at Theresa Lang Center, New School located at 55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor in New York.

The field of photography is constantly changing. Technologies, theories, and what consti­tutes a ‘photographer’ or a ‘photograph’ are prone to unending developments. In the last decade, this rapid transformation has only accelerated due to pervasive digitization. Paradoxically, one might say that photography is now in a simi­lar place to where it was during the first few decades of its invention––a time when its emerging cultural significance quickly expanded due to innovative technological developments. Similarly, in the last two decades, we have seen an expanding definition of photography through the digital revolution, the Internet, and the accelerated stream of interest in new photographic processes and applications. Thus, it is impor­tant to reflect on this current moment – with the rapidly increasing permeation of photography throughout contemporary life – on what is the importance of photography as a specific medium or discipline from the perspective of a practitioner, user, pedagogue, technologist, historian, among others. Furthermore, how can we evaluate contemporary culture within the expanding photographic field while speculating the future of images? The Photographic Universe: A Conference will attempt to answer these questions through broad artistic, scientific, cultural, sociopolitical arcs to examine the implications of images in contemporary life.

The unique format of the conference will consist of one-on-one conversations between two individuals from disparate professional and research backgrounds. Each speaker will present a ten-minute presentation on the subject of photography, followed by twenty-minute dialogue responding to each other’s presentation.

Guest speakers include: Richard Benson, Walter Benn Michaels, Charlotte Cotton, Andrea Geyer, David Reinfurt, Trevor Paglen, Penelope Umbrico, James Welling , representatives from Adobe Systems and Google, among others.

The Printed Picture

Exhibition on view: October 17, 2008 – June 1, 2009

Lecture: Saturday, October 18, 2008, 11:30 a.m. with Diana Bush

The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York, New York

An educational installation portraying the history of picture-making is now on view at the Museum of Modern Art. The show includes sixty enlarged details magnified fifty times to reveal the technical elements involved in printing. The exhibition opens in conjunction with the release of The Printed Picture, a book by master printer Richard Benson, that traces the changing role of technology in producing multiple images. Benson, who has worked as a printer and photographer for over forty years, is known for his incredible ability to produce outstanding photographic prints. In fact, Benson printed several Paul Strand limited-edition prints for Aperture Foundation, including Wire Wheel (pictured), Alfred Stieglitz, Lake George, St. Francis Church, Rancho de Taos, and a platinum print of Wall Street, of which there is only one left. Benson also printed Strand’s Garden Portfolio (Portfolio Four), which consists of 10 gelatin-silver photographs, printed under Strand’s supervision in the artist’s darkroom in Orgeval, France, shortly before Strand’s death.