The Lens

2021 was ... technically a year. Sure, it feels like January became October with a tiny blip of optimism for, like, two weeks in June. But as we look back, we see a whole lot of good stuff that took place throughout the amorphous stretch of time formerly known as a calendar year.

So, here we present: Five things we did that got us through 2021.

Tunnelitis, an exhibition of photographs by Raymond Thompson, Jr., at Studeō PAR- uncovers an obfuscated history.

"Overall, it’s kind of a quiet show, if that makes sense," says Jonathan Sears, executive director of PAR-Projects. "There’s a lot of dust in the air — from the pieces. It’s almost cloud-like."

The pieces he's referencing are the photographs by Raymond Thompson, Jr., that make up Studeō PAR-'s current exhibition, Tunnelitis, an examination of the... Continue reading Dust to Dust

Wright State University shows Truth and Ruin, a large-scale photography exhibition exposing the landscape of systemic racism alongside portraits representing and promoting Black joy and agency.

It was the summer of 2020 when Ben Montague, Wright State’s curator of The Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries, was seeking an artist to mount a photography exhibition. That June had seen many millions of protesters around the country demonstrating in response to the murder of George Floyd the month prior. Says Montague: “For our campus, I wanted to... Continue reading Truth Be Told

Self Love documents moments of recognition between artist and subject as photographer Bruce Bennett spent time in a third-grade public elementary classroom.

Our children are living in an unprecedented overlap of art and technology: They have nearly unlimited access to cameras — that is, they see parents and peers using smartphone cameras to document their everyday lives — but they likely have nearly zero access to film cameras, and no real awareness or understanding of that tradition of image making. Photography, as an art form,... Continue reading Through the Looking Glass

Ahead of Lens Mix 7, a conversation about the necessity — and the inherent challenges — in defining and broadening a photographic canon. Catch the full virtual conversation moderated by Kevin Moore with guest curators Andrea Nelson and Lucy Gallun on Saturday, October 9.

“The history of photography is still a relatively new field, and its history is constantly being written and rewritten in relation to the world as it evolves," says FotoFocus Artistic Director and Curator Kevin Moore.

As an art historian, Kevin... Continue reading Curator Kevin Moore Talks Expanding the Canon