Santa Fe’s Center, a 28-year-old photographic organization, has won a $162,500 National Endowment for the Humanities grant.
The money will support a two-year program inviting scholars to write and speak on the topic of photography and civic engagement in both online and in-person lectures, executive director Laura Wzorek Pressley said. The scholars will offer multiple viewpoints and essays available on a new website, thedemocraticlens.org.
The subjects will include the democratic process, equity and citizens’ capacity to influence a nation. They will tell the stories that shaped this country by reviewing the role of photography in American labor rights, women’s rights, civil rights and Indigenous rights movements, among others.
The free series will kick off at the Review Santa Fe Photo Symposium on Nov. 20 at the La Fonda on the Plaza from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Will Wilson, the photography department head at Santa Fe Community College, will moderate lectures by three scholars:
• 10 a.m.-11 a.m. “Photography and Restitution: The Civil Potential of the Image” with Laura Wexler, professor of American and women’s gender and sexuality studies at Yale University.
• 11 a.m. to noon “War/Photography: Empathy as a Perspective” with Anne Wilkes Tucker, curator emerita, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
• 12-1 p.m. “What Can’t Be Unseen: Photography and Activism” with Kymberly Pinder, dean, Yale School of Art, Yale University.
In its 21st year, the flagship photographic program Review Santa Fe brings 100 photographers and lens-based artists to Santa Fe and up to 50 industry leaders: curators, editors, galleries, publishers and others to source new talent for publication and exhibition.
