The question of the photographed subject presents a central ethical and political challenge today that is invariably bound up with centuries of image production, with the lenses through which we have constructed ourselves and another’s self.
School of Art Regents Professor Sama Alshaibi and Dr. Deborah Willis, professor at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, will take an immersive look into the visual and identity politics of portraiture and self-portraiture, into imagining the body as a setting in which political and personal narratives intersect and unfold at the Center for Creative Photography Auditorium at 5:30p on Oct. 27. Admission is free.
Together they will inquire into the registers of photography and the human experience—of gender, race, religion, politics and art. What does it mean to excavate image histories that simultaneously revise the sense of ourselves today? How, and to what extent, can we be attentive to what stories live in the body? In what ways are we able to tackle such urgent issues as migrations, borders, and power through photography? Theirs is work not only vital to the civil discourses of our moment, but also of deep significance as we look to yesterday’s discourses and forward to tomorrow’s.
This event is made possible with the generous support from the Arizona Arts Diversity and Inclusion Committee grant, the Arizona Arts’ Racial Justice Studio, donors John and Sandi Flint, and the University of Arizona School of Art and VASE Lecture Series.
“Embodying Self as Subject” is part of the Arizona Arts Signature Series, a curated set of events and experiences this fall designed to highlight the amazing work being done across the division. #ArizonaArtsSeries
