Founded in 2010 as an experimental platform for free-form critical discussions, MoMA’s Forums on Contemporary Photography have encouraged debate about the perspectives and scope of still and moving images and other forms of picture-making among artists, curators, and theorists in the field.
This session is organized in advance of the survey An-My Lê: Between Two Rivers/Giữa hai giòng sông/Entre deux rivières and the world-premiere presentation of Lê’s Fourteen Views (2023), an elliptical photographic installation that deconstructs the formal logic of popular 19th-century cycloramas. A cross-disciplinary group of artists and cultural thinkers will discuss iterations of the “360-degree” image—from cycloramas to virtual and augmented reality—exploring how immersive forms, particularly in the age of AI, can create or undermine systems of surveillance, offer new ways to think about the environment, reclaim erased histories in public spaces, construct radical forms of access, and enlist the possibility of democratic collective experience.
For this convening we are delighted to be joined by a group of distinguished speakers:
Timothy Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art, Yale University
Jessica Brillhart, Founder and Director, Vrai Pictures
Reginé Gilbert, James Weldon Johnson Professor, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University
Allison Janae Hamilton, artist
An-My Lê, artist
Dan Leers, Curator of Photography, Carnegie Museum of Art
Lucy Raven, artist
Lisa Sutcliffe, Curator, Department of Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Seating is limited, RSVP is required to attend this event.
Cofounded by curators Roxana Marcoci and Eva Respini on February 16, 2010, and conceived as an experimental platform for free-form critical discussions, MoMA’s forums on contemporary photography are designed to encourage debate about the perspectives and scope of still and moving images and other forms of picture-making among leading artists, curators, and theorists in the field. The creative process of today is not solitary but dynamic, evolving from countless partnerships. These forums offer an intellectual milieu that values the scholarly reassessment of pivotal ideas in art, innovative practices, and complex and competing visions of modern and contemporary art.
Roxana Marcoci, The David Dechman Senior Curator and Acting Chief Curator of Photography, The Robert B. Menschel Department of Photography, MoMA, begins each session with an introduction to the topic, providing context for the conversation. Four to seven featured speakers then present for five to 10 minutes each. The presentations are followed by a probing, critical Q&A session and a moderated discussion with all the guests.
Read an article about the Forums from Art in America.
This Forum on Contemporary Photography is organized by Roxana Marcoci, The David Dechman Senior Curator and Acting Chief Curator of Photography, and Caitlin Ryan, Curatorial Assistant, The Robert B. Menschel Department of Photography, MoMA.
The Forums on Contemporary Photography are made possible through the generous support of the Joseph M. Cohen Family Collection, and Thomas and Susan Dunn.