Focal Point

On May 29, 2025, MoCP presented a series of conversations exploring authorship, representation, and the dissemination of information as they relate to the past, present, and future of photography. This special edition of Focal Point Extras captures a discussion between photographer Susan Meiselas and writer, critic, and photographer Teju Cole on the topic “What Does It Mean to Look at These Photographs?” The two consider three bodies of work by Meiselas spanning several decades to examine the politics of looking at photographs—especially when those images depict stories of human struggle, suffering, and conflict.

On May 29, 2025, MoCP presented a series of conversations that explored topics of authorship, representation, and the dissemination of information as they relate to the past, present, and future of photography. This special edition of Focal Point Extras captures the conversation between scholar and educator Laura Wexler (Yale University) and artist, art historian, and educator Shawn Michelle Smith (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) on the topic of “The Living Archive.” The two discuss artists who work with archives to expand fixed notions of history, and people who call for a reassessment of ownership and control over photographed people within archives. This symposium was in conjunction with the exhibition, Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography in Dialogue with the MoCP Collection curated by Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Laura wexler, and MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and Collections, Kristin Taylor. Image credit:Aaron Turner, Untitled, Self Extended, from Black Alchemy Vol. 3, 2020

On May 29, 2025, MoCP presented a series of conversations that explored topics of authorship, representation, and the dissemination of information as they relate to the past, present, and future of photography. This special edition of Focal Point Extras captures the conversation between artists Eric Gottesman and Wendy Ewald as part of a full-day symposium at MoCP titled Conversations on Collaboration in Photography. The two explored the ways artists place collaboration with the photographed person at the forefront of their process, and how they convey their partnership using text, staging techniques, or experimental exhibition platforms.  This symposium was in conjunction with the exhibition, Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography in Dialogue with the MoCP Collection curated by Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Laura wexler, and MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and Collections, Kristin Taylor. Images discussed in this conversation include: Wendy EwaldBen Michel and Joseph Ashini, 1969 Wendy Ewald and Eric GottesmanBen Michel's sister touching Ben's picture after his death, 2008 To see the short film they discuss in the beginning of the lecture, please visit Eric Gottesman’s website here.

On May 29, 2025, MoCP presented a series of conversations that explored topics of authorship, representation, and the dissemination of information as they relate to the past, present, and future of photography. This special edition of Focal Point Extras captures the conversation between artist Dawoud Bey and scholar Leigh Raiford on the topic of “The Photographed Person was Always There.” The two explored the critical role of the photographed person in portraiture, and how they shape images and their meaning. This symposium was in conjunction with the exhibition, Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography in Dialogue with the MoCP Collection curated by Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Laura wexler, and MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and Collections, Kristin Taylor. Images discussed in this conversation include: Dawoud Bey, A Man in a Bowler Hat, from the Harlem, USA portfolio, 1976 Dawoud Bey, A Woman Waiting In The Doorway, from the Harlem, USA portfolio, 1976 Dawoud Bey, Untitled #7 (Branches and Woods), from Night Coming Tenderly, Black, 2017 For more information on Dawoud Bey’s work in the MoCP collection, please visit this link.

In this episode,  MoCP Community Engagement Fellow Alayna N. Pernell is in conversation with artist and educator, Jen Everett. The two discuss Everett’s interdisciplinary practice spanning lens-based and time-based media, installation, collage, and writing, as well as her ongoing exploration of how Black knowledge is produced and transmitted through rupture, interiority, and embodied memory. They also reflect on a work by Patty Carroll in the MoCP permanent collection.