Berkley-based photography historian, writer and curator, Leigh Raiford will present a talk on a new body of research that looks at the personal and family photo archives of Kathleen Neal Cleaver, a Law professor and notable member of the Black Panther Party. Raiford is a contributor to the exhibition "Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography," on view at the Ryerson Image Centre January 24 - April 8, 2018, which attempts to reimagine the history of photography through the lens of collaboration. Following one of the project's propositions that reminds us, "Sometimes photography is involved in the coming together of a community that warrants change, restitution and justice." Raiford's talk will discuss photography's role in visualizing justice for marginalized communities.
Field of Vision is Gallery 44’s thematic public programming series exploring the larger conversations surrounding photography and contemporary image culture. Taking a variety of forms – performance lectures, artist talks, readings, dinner parties, film screenings – each programming year explores a theme and its relevance to contemporary image making practices and dialogues.
This year's theme, Representation and Visibility, looks at how photography, as a mode of self-address, can act as a marker of perseverance and a tool to confront structural inequalities.
Leigh Raiford is the author of Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare: Photography and the African American Freedom Struggle (University of North Carolina Press, 2011) and is co-editor with with Heike Raphael-Hernandez of Migrating the Black Body: Visual Culture and the African Diaspora (University of Washington Press, 2017) and with Renee Romano of The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory (University of Georgia Press, 2006). Her work has appeared in numerous academic journals, including American Quarterly, Small Axe, and NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art; museum exhibit catalogs including Edward Kienholz, Five Card Stud 1969-1972, Revisited, (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011) and the edited collection Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self, (Harry N. Abrams Press, 2003), a history of race and photography in the United States; and news and popular outlets including Artforum, Aperture, Ms. Magazine and AlJazeera English online. She is an associate professor of African American Studies at University of California, Berkeley.
Presented in partnership with:
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Additional Programming:
Join Leigh Raiford and Laura Wexler for a walkthrough and workshop within the exhibition "Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography"
Friday, January 26, 1-3PM
Ryerson Image Centre - Main Gallery
33 Gould St. Toronto
More information on programming for "Collaboration: A Potenial History of Photography"
