WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design is a satellite location for FotoWeek DC 2011, November 5-12, 2011. During this annual festival dedicated to the photographic arts, the Corcoran will play host to a variety of FotoWeek activities, such as the kick-off party November 4, expert portfolio reviews November 12, FREE noontime lectures, exhibitions — including shortlisted entries to the annual Prix Pictet, on view in North America for the first time — and more. A full list of Corcoran FotoWeek programming and exhibitions can be found at www.corcoran.org/fotoweekdc.
In cele ation of FotoWeek, the Corcoran will be FREE of admission throughout the festival, November 5–12, including November 7 and 8, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., days the Gallery is normally closed.
As a major center for collecting, displaying, and studying photography and photojournalism—including a new MA in New Media Photojournalism—the Corcoran is proud to sponsor and participate in FotoWeek, for the fourth year in a row. The festival comprises hundreds of participating events across D.C. at galleries, museums, embassies, and art spaces as the city comes together in cele ation of the power and range of the photographic medium. As a major center for collecting, displaying, and studying photography and photojournalism—including a new MA in New Media Photojournalism—the Corcoran is proud to sponsor and participate in FotoWeek, for the fourth year in a row. The festival comprises hundreds of participating events across D.C. at galleries, museums, embassies, and art spaces as the city comes together in cele ation of the power and range of the photographic medium.
Cele ations begin with the official FotoWeek DC Launch Party Friday, November 4 at 5 p.m. at FotoWeek Central (1800 L St. NW) with the exclusive preview opening of this year’s exciting exhibitions. At 8:30 p.m., the cele ation continues at the Corcoran Gallery of Art with late-night viewings of photography exhibitions, the FatBack DJs, and monumental projections, including work by student-artists at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served at both venues. It’s a two-for-one evening with a double party, not to be missed. One ticket provides entry to both events.
Beginning Monday, November 7 through Friday, November 11, the Corcoran is pleased to offer a FREE Noon Lecture Series featuring some of today's leading luminaries in the field of image-making. The series is curated by Corcoran Chair of Photography and Associate Professor Muriel Hasbun, with the assistance of Director of Photojournalism Programs and Assistant Professor Susan Sterner and Associate Faculty Jennifer O'Neill. Talks begin at noon at the Corcoran’s Frances and Armand Hammer Auditorium and are free and open to the public. Pre-registration at http://getinvolved.corcoran.org/fotoweeknoonlectureseries2011.
The series begins on Monday, November 7 with acclaimed American photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair. In Reflections on a decade of post-9/11 conflict and social issues reporting, Sinclair presents a selection of images from her portfolio from the last decade. Sinclair will reveal how she got her start in photography and how her work has evolved over the past decade covering conflict and global social issues. The talk is co-sponsored with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. For more information and to register, please visit http://getinvolved.corcoran.org/fotoweeknoonlectureseries2011.
On Tuesday, November 8, Amy Yenkin, the Director of the Open Society Foundations' Documentary Photography Project, will provide an overview of the Foundation's involvement with documentary photography. In Intent and Image: Documentary Photography and Advocacy, Yenkin explores the intersection of photography and advocacy and examines strategies for using visual narrative to influence individual choices, change institutional policy, change a field's practices, combat stigma on a community level, and reveal silenced narratives. For more information and to register, please visit http://getinvolved.corcoran.org/fotoweeknoonlectureseries2011
On Wednesday, November 9, Muriel Hasbun and Pablo Ortiz present Conversación, a yearlong visual exchange between artists Muriel Hasbun and Pablo Ortiz Monasterio. In a game of looking and response, Hasbun, an educator at the Corcoran College of Art + Design based in Washington, D.C., and Ortiz Monasterio, residing in Mexico City, allow us into their conversation about Mexico, about photographic discourse, and about friendship. The artists discuss the process of shaping this dialogue into a body of work, which will be exhibited at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C. November 9th, 2011 to Fe uary 2012. The lecture is co-sponsored with the Mexican Cultural Institute. For more information and to register, please visit http://getinvolved.corcoran.org/fotoweeknoonlectureseries2011.
On Thursday, November 10, artist, writer, and “experimental geographer” Trevor Paglen presents a lecture entitled Geography of Photography. The rise of Google Image search, flickr, and the ubiquity of digital photography have created a pervasive angst among photographers. What's the point of creating new images when there are already so many out there? When everything, it seems, has been documented? When every image seems disposable? In this talk, Paglen suggests that a geographical approach to photography allows us to reconceive the role of photographers at this historical moment, and allows us to develop some alternatives to the notion of photography as image-making. For more information and to register, please visit http://getinvolved.corcoran.org/fotoweeknoonlectureseries2011.
On Friday, November 11, the series concludes with a lecture entitled All the Days and Nights by Doug DuBois, whose work has been collected by the Museum of Modern Art in NY, SFMOMA in San Francisco, J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and The Museum of Fine Art in Houston. Dubois performs a reading from his recent monograph, All the Days and Nights (Aperture, 2009), and discusses his most recent project, My Last Day at Seventeen, about coming of age in Ireland during the current economic downturn. A book signing follows the lecture. For more information and to register, please visit http://getinvolved.corcoran.org/fotoweeknoonlectureseries2011.
On Saturday, November 12, the Corcoran hosts a highlight of the Festival – FotoWeek DC Portfolio Reviews in the Corcoran’s North Atrium from 10 a.m.–1 p.m. and 2–5 p.m. Portfolio Reviews provide emerging photographers with the opportunity to have their work reviewed by a distinguished lineup of professionals from around the country. Curators, educators, photo editors, and other experts from the fields of commercial, fine art, photojournalism, multimedia, and documentary join with prominent photographers to offer frank appraisals, valuable business insight, and key advice for projects and books in progress. Students receive a discount. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.fotoweekdc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106&Itemid=191.
PHOTOGRAPHY ON VIEW AT THE CORCORAN
Throughout FotoWeek DC, a number of photography exhibitions will be on view: Hank Willis Thomas: Strange Fruit (October 1-January 16), an exhibition of new photographs and video works by Hank Willis Thomas; Gordon Parks: Photographs from the Collection (October 1–January 16), which focuses on his photojournalism for LIFE and other magazines; Selections from the Indie Photobook Li ary (November 2–20), which spotlights self-publishing and other trends; Photo Todos: Works by Corcoran College of Art + Design and Latin American Youth Center Students (November 2–20), which present work emerging from a year-long initiative links youth in El Salvador with those of Salvadoran origin in Washington, D.C. Works shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Pictet will be on view at the Corcoran Atrium—the first time Prix Pictet has been shown in North America—from November 3–13.
Hank Willis Thomas: Strange Fruit (October 1–January 16) is an exhibition of new photographs and video works by artist Hank Willis Thomas; Thomas explores how the concepts of spectacle and display relate to notions of African American identity. Organized by the Corcoran, and shown concurrently with 30 Americans, Strange Fruit examines two forms of spectacle – the historic culture of lynchings and the commodification that surrounds professional sports – and analyzes their impact on the presentation and the perception of the black body. With contemporary representations of athletes shown together with historic images of lynched men and women, this provocative exhibition invites viewers to consider, remember, and question the transformation of black bodies into souvenirs and commercial objects. Calling attention to parallels between these disparate but linked ideas, Thomas explores how disturbing historical images inform our present perceptions.
Gordon Parks: Photographs from the Collection (October 1–January 16), features works by Gordon Parks, including his iconic American Gothic, one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century. Parks (1912–2006), perhaps best known for his work as a photojournalist, used photography, film, writing, and music to express an enduring message of hope in the face of adversity. The exhibition showcases a selection of Parks’s photographic essays about pressing social issues like poverty, race, segregation, and crime. Selections from the Indie Photobook Li ary (November 2–20) will be on view in Gallery 31, the Corcoran’s free exhibition space. Founded in 2010 by Larissa Leclair, the Indie Photobook Li ary (iPL) is an archive that preserves and showcases self-published photobooks, photobooks independently published and distributed, photography exhibition catalogs, print-on-demand photobooks, artists’ books, zines, photobooks printed on newsprint, limited-edition photobooks, and non-English language photography books. Its traveling exhibitions and noncirculating public li ary provide access to these works, promote development of future discourse on trends in self-publishing, encourage reflection and comparison, and enable scholarly research. Selections from the Indie Photobook Li ary is curated by Muriel Hasbun, chair of photography, and Susan Sterner, director of photojournalism programs at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. A reception for Selections from the Indie Photobook Li ary will be held at the Corcoran on Thursday, November 10, 2011 from 6 to 8 p.m.r
Photo Todos: Works by Corcoran College of Art + Design and Latin American Youth Center Students (November 2–November 20) will be on view in Gallery 31 and the College’s White Halls space. Photo Todos features artwork by Corcoran students and local youth participating in "Two Museums, Two Nations, One Identity." The year-long initiative links youth in El Salvador with those of Salvadoran origin in Washington, D.C. Corcoran undergraduate students teach photography, audio, and video skills to youth at the Latin American Youth Center twice a week; participants engage in a process of exploration and cultural exchange with students in El Salvador, resulting in a rich dialogue and works of art that explore personal and collective identity.
"Two Museums, Two Nations, One Identity" is led by Muriel Hasbun, chair of photography at the Corcoran, in collaboration with the Art Museum of the Americas and the Museum of Art of El Salvador (MARTE). The project is funded by Museums and Community Collaborations A oad (MCCA), an initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the American Association of Museums (AAM). Nikon has provided generous in-kind support to the Corcoran College of Art + Design for this project. A reception for Photo Todos: Works by Corcoran College of Art + Design and Latin American Youth Center Students will be held at the Corcoran on Thursday, November 10, 2011 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Prix Pictet (November 3–November 13), the esteemed prize awarded to photographers whose work addresses issues of social and environmental change, will show in North America for the first time at the Corcoran. The third season of the prize, which is organized by the Swiss bank Pictet & Cie, revolves around the theme of Growth. Works by the 12 photographers shortlisted for the Prize—including Mitch Epstein, Taryn Simon, and Thomas Struth—will be on view.
The Fine Art Photography and Photojournalism Thesis Preview Exhibition (November 4–November 13), featuring previews of undergraduate student thesis work to be showcased in spring's NEXT at the Corcoran, will be on view in the College's White Walls space.
On Saturday, November 5, at 3 p.m., Kaitlin Booher, curatorial assistant, will lead a gallery talk of Prix Pictet. Works shortlisted for the prestigious annual prize will be on view in North America for the first time in the Corcoran Atrium from November 3–13. Guests meet at the Information Desk; the talk is free. On November 12, Booher will lead a tour of special exhibitions Hank Willis Thomas: Strange Fruit and Gordon Parks: Photographs from the Collection.
Guests meet at the Information Desk; the tour is free.
As part of special FotoWeek Central FREE and expanded admission, the Corcoran Shop will offer a 20 percent discount off all photography books and related merchandise, both online and in-store during FotoWeek. Online, visit shop.corcoran.org.
For more information on FotoWeek DC 2011 at the Corcoran, visit www.corcoran.org/fotoweekdc. For a full schedule of events and programs, visit www.fotoweekdc.org
