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The Space

IRIS Nights Past Lectures

POYi    
Water SPORT POYi L8S


Steve McCurryDavid BurnettDan WintersMichael Robinson ChávezMatt BlackDavid Hume KennerlySusan Meiselas




Colin FinlayGerd LudwigEli ReedGillian LaubTeru KuwayamaSara TerryLouie Palu




The Annenberg Space for Photography offers live programming through the lecture series entitled IRIS NIGHTS. IRIS NIGHTS is a public program offered free of charge, by reservation online on a first come first serve basis. IRIS NIGHTS brings to life the featured exhibit with hour-long lectures by the photographers featured in the Photography Space exhibits, as well as by other notable guest artists and experts. The IRIS NIGHTS programs give attendees unique access to the artists in the intimate setting of the Photography Space.

Lecture Series Schedule

Sat, 07.25.09 Lecture, Steve McCurry's Steve McCurry
Thu, 07.30.09 Lecture, Carolyn Cole's Photojournalism: An International Approach
Thu, 08.06.09 Lecture, David Burnett's David Burnett
Thu, 08.13.09 Lecture, Dan Winters' Periodical Photographs
Thu, 08.20.09 Lecture, Michael Robinson Chávez's Photographing A Shrinking World
Thu, 08.27.09 Lecture, Matt Black's California's New Hard Times
Thu, 09.03.09 Lecture, David Hume Kennerly's Behind the Scenes of History
Thu, 09.10.09 Lecture, Susan Meiselas' Abstract
Thu, 09.24.09 Lecture, Colin Finlay's Photographic Prose
Thu, 10.01.09 Gerd Ludwig's Russia – From Broken Empire to Wild Wild East
Thu, 10.08.09 Eli Reed's Eli Reed
Thu, 10.15.09 Gillian Laub's Everything is Personal. Tales of Intimate Engagements
Thu, 10.22.09 Teru Kuwayama's Tribe Against Empire
Thu, 10.29.09 Lecture, Sara Terry and Louie Palu's War is Only Half the Story


Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry
Saturday, July 25th, 6:30pm

Steve McCurrySteve McCurry is recognized universally as one of today’s finest image-makers. Best known for his evocative color photography, McCurry, in the documentary tradition, captures the essence of human struggle and joy. Many of his images have become modern icons- such as the photograph of the Afghan refugee girl with strikingly vibrant eyes, described by many as the most recognizable photograph in the world today. He has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1986.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year, awarded by the National Press Photographers’ Association. His coverage of the Russia invasion of Afghanistan won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad.

McCurry has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including thirty years of coverage of Afghanistan. He focuses on the human consequences of war, not only showing what war impresses on the landscape, but rather, what it shows on the human face.

McCurry has published many books, most recently Looking East (2006) and his latest book In the Shadow of Mountains (2007).


Carolyn Cole
Photojournalism: An International Approach
Thursday, July 30th, 6:30pm  

Carolyn ColeThe July 30th, 2009 Iris Nights lecture featuring Carolyn Cole, the award-winning photojournalist for the Los Angeles Times was cancelled.

We were notified that Ms. Cole was going to be on assignment overseas. Because of the nature and schedule of her work, we were not able to offer an alternative date at the time.







David Burnett:
Thursday, August 6th, 6:30pm

Dan WintersDavid Burnett is a photojournalist with more than four decades of experience covering the news and tempo of our age. He is co-founder of Contact Press Images, the New York based photojournalism agency, now entering its 33nd year. In a recent issue of American Photo magazine Burnett was named one of the "100 Most Important People in Photography."

Last spring David was awarded a number of prizes by his colleagues, including: 1st Prize (Sports Action) from the White House News Photographers's Association., and a 1st prize for best Campaign picture of 2008 from Best Of Photojournalism (National Press Photographers Association).

Last year POYi honored Burnett with an "Award of Excellence" for images captured during the US presidential election, which were also featured in the print exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography. He was "Magazine Photographer of the Year" in 1980.

Just released from InsightEditions: Spring 2009, is Burnett's "SOUL REBEL - An Intimate Portrait of Bob Marley", a photographic look at the iconic Reggae musician.


Dan Winters:
Periodical Photographs
Thursday, August 13th, 6:30pm

Dan WintersWorld renowned photographer Dan Winters talked about his early influences and interest in film and photography on his path to becoming an editorial photographer. He also discussed his first book, Dan Winters: Periodical Photographs, which was released by Aperture. He chronicled the process and journey in putting it together.  

Dan began his career in photography as a photojournalist in his hometown in Ventura County, California. After winning several regional awards for his work, he moved to New York City, where magazine assignments came rapidly. Known for the broad range of subject matter he is able to interpret, he is widely recognized for his unusual celebrity portraiture, his scientific photography and his photojournalistic stories. Dan has won over one hundred national and international awards from American Photography, Communucation Arts, The Society of Publication Designers, PDN, The Art Directors Club of New York, and a 1st place World Press Photo Award in the portrait category, among others. He was also awarded the prestigious Alfred Eisenstadt Award for Magazine Photography. In 2003, he was honored by Kodak as a photo "Icon" in their biographical "Legends" series.

Dan has shot regular assignments for magazines such as Esquire, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Texas Monthly, Wired, Discover, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Time, and many others. His clients for print, advertising and commercials include Nike, Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Bose, Saturn, Sega, Fila, Cobra, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Dreamworks, Columbia TriStar and Twentieth Century Fox. Regular music clients include RCA, A&M, Sony, Warner Brothers and Epitaph.

He has had three exhibitions of his personal work in galleries in NYC and LA and has photos in the permanent collection at the Houston Museum of Fine Art and the Harry Ransom Center in Austin. 

Dan lives in Austin, Los Angeles and Savannah, Georgia with his wife and son.


Michael Robinson Chávez:
Photographing A Shrinking World
Thursday, August 20th, 6:30pm

Michael Robinson ChávezMichael Robinson Chávez discussed taking photographs locally and abroad, and the connection between stories and people. He presented his photographs from the last 15 years including the civil war in Congo, conflict in the Middle East, street photography in Peru and India and a current ongoing project on south central Los Angeles. He covered the reasons why he undertook certain assignments, how he was able to gain access and his process of telling stories through image making.

Chávez has been a photographer at The Los Angeles Times since 2007. Prior to that, he worked for The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and the Associated Press. In addition to photographing local stories, he has covered wide-ranging international assignments in over 45 countries including: the Congolese Civil War, violence in El Salvador, elections in Nepal, the 2006 Hezbollah/Israeli war, the Georgian/Russian war in 2008, the conflict in Israel/Palestine and the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Michael won the Scripps Howard Foundation Award for Photojournalism in 2008. He has twice been named Photographer of the Year by The White House News Photographers’ Association in 2004 and 2007 and received an Award of Excellence as Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 2008 by Pictures of the Year International.

He has recently published a book of his photographs from Peru: "Awaiting the Rain," and a book about Dharavi, Bombay’s largest slum.


Matt Black:
California's New Hard Times
Thursday, August 27th, 6:30pm

Michael Robinson ChávezMatt Black is a documentary photographer whose work has been noted for its visual intensity, emotional engagement and social conscience. He has made a particular focus of documenting life in isolated and overlooked communities in rural California and southern Mexico. His work in the Central Valley -- the so-called "Other California," a 400-mile stretch of farmland and small towns that is one of the most agriculturally rich, socially complex, and economically impoverished regions in America -- has been published and exhibited widely.  

On this evening, Matt discussed his approach to photography and made a special debut presentation of his newest work chronicling the impact of drought and recession in rural California. Since the start of last year, he has been documenting a rise in unemployment, homelessness and hunger unfolding on a scale not seen since the 1930s. He spent much of the summer photographing in Mendota, a small town whose unemployment rate now tops 40%, among the highest in the U.S.

Matt's work has been widely honored, receiving grants and awards from, among others, World Press Photo, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alexia Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council and the Robert F Kennedy Memorial.


David Hume Kennerly:
Behind the Scenes of History
Thursday, September 3rd, 6:30pm

David Hume KennerlyDavid Hume Kennerly has been on the front lines of history for four decades. His presentation, illustrated with his photographs, focused on the events that he covered as a photojournalist, from the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy, to the war in Vietnam, the resignation of a president and vice president, his subsequent role as the chief White House photographer for President Ford, Reagan's Fireside Summit with Gorbachev, right through the Inauguration of Barack Obama and much more. James Earle Jones said that , "Kennerly is like Forrest Gump, except that he was really there."

David Hume Kennerly won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for his photos of the Vietnam War. Two years later was appointed President Gerald R. Ford's personal photographer. He was recently named, “One of the Most 100 Most Important People in Photography” by American Photo Magazine. He was a contributing editor for Newsweek, and a contributing photographer for Time and Life magazines. Kennerly has published several books of his work, Shooter, Photo Op, Seinoff: The Final Days of Seinfeld, Photo du Jour, and most recently, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. He is a producer and one of the principle photographers of Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book.

Kennerly received a Primetime Emmy Best Picture nomination as executive producer of, “The Taking of Flight 943: The Uli Derickson Story,” and a documentary he executive produced, “Portraits of a Lady,” made the short list of documentary films considered for the 2008 Academy Awards. Kennerly is on the Board of Trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, and the Atlanta Board of Visitors of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). His archive is housed at the Center for American History at the University of Texas, Austin.


Susan Meiselas:
Abstract
Thursday, September 10th 6:30pm

Susan MeiselasSusan Meiselas is a documentary photographer and member of Magnum Photos since 1976. She is the author of Carnival Strippers, Nicaragua, El Salvador: The Work of 30 Photographers, Chile from Within, Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History, Pandora’s Box and Encounters with the Dani.

Her awards include the Robert Capa Gold Medal, Leica Award for Excellence, Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the Hasselblad Foundation Prize and most recently, the Cornell Capa Infinity Award. In 1992 she was made a MacArthur Fellow. Her photographs are included in American and international collections.

For over 35 years, Susan Meiselas has continued to question and redefine what it means to be a documentary photographer. Looking back at the evolution of her practice Meiselas weaved together what often appears as disparate elements into a rich and complex look at her photography through time. Focusing on three major projects or ‘chapters’ in her life, Carnival Strippers, Nicaragua, and Kurdistan, and through a mix of ephemera, Meiselas spoke to what it means to look back in order to move forward.

Colin Finlay:
Photographic Prose
Thursday, September 24th, 6:30pm

Colin FinleyColin Finlay is one of the foremost documentary photographers in the world. He has been awarded the prestigious Picture of the Year International (POYi) honor six times. For more than twenty years, Finlay has documented the human condition with compassion, empathy and dignity. In pursuit of his passion, he has circled the globe twenty-seven times in search of that one photograph that will be a testament to the depth of human will and compassion, of hope and of an informed collective consciousness. 

His work has been honored by prestigious organizations such as the Lucie Award/IPA, New York Art Directors, Photo District News (PDN), Applied Arts, International Center for Photography, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. His photographs have been featured in Vanity Fair, TIME, U.S.News and World Report, American Photo, Los Angeles Magazine, UNICEF, and more. Finlay’s second book "Testify" is a collection of images from seventeen years of photojournalism around the globe, and was published in 2006. "Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan", Finlay’s third book, was published in July 2007 by powerHouse.  In 2007, Finlay also premiered 12°N x 23°E, 64°S x 60°E, a photo essay that features contrasts between photographs taken in Sudan and Antartica.

Gerd Ludwig:
Russia – From Broken Empire to Wild Wild East
Thursday, October 1st, 6:30pm

Gerd LudwigGerd Ludwig studied photography with Otto Steinert in his native Germany. In 1984 he relocated to New York and signed on as a contract photographer for National Geographic Magazine in the early 1990's. His focus on the socio-economic changes following the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc resulted in the publication of his ten-year retrospective book and exhibition, Broken Empire: After the Fall of the USSR. His ongoing coverage of post-Soviet Russia has garnered his distinction as being the world’s foremost color photographer documenting the region.

Now based in Los Angeles, Gerd Ludwig photographs primarily for National Geographic, occasionally shoots advertising, and lectures at universities and photographic workshops internationally.

In 2006 he received the Lucie Award for International Photographer of the Year.


Eli Reed:
Eli Reed
Thursday, October 8th, 6:30pm

Eli ReedEli Reed is a clinical professor of photojournalism at the University of Texas. He has a strong interest in social justice and the effects of war on society and has been a member of the Magnum Photos co-operative since 1983 and is also a member of Kamoinge, a New York-based collective of African American photographers. A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, he has worked on assignment covering world news events since 1982 for publications such as National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, The NY Times, The Washington Post, Vogue, Stern, Geo, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, Ford and Rockefeller foundations, and Save Our Children.

Among his many awards are Visa pour L'image Festival Du Photoreportage (Perpignan, France; 1993), W. Eugene Smith Grant in Documentary Photography (1992), Kodak World Image Award for Fine Art Photography (1992), Leica Medal of Excellence and POY (1988), Nikon World Understanding Award (1983), as well as prizes from World Press Photo and the Overseas Press Club. His books include Beirut: City of Regrets (1988), Black in America (1997), and I Grandi Fotografi Eli Reed (2007). His work has been exhibited in key museums and galleries, and he has lectured and taught extensively at important venues worldwide and judged major international photo competitions.

Reed is a member of the Society of Motion Picture Still Photographers, having photographed over 25 feature, documentary, and cable network films.


Gillian Laub:
Everything is Personal. Tales of Intimate Engagements.
Thursday, October 15th, 6:30pm

Gerd LudwigGillian Laub approaches photography like an anthropologist with a camera. She began photographing her family ten years ago as a student at The International Center of Photography. She continued exploring enclaves of America which fascinated her, such as the beauty pageant and debutante culture, through her intimate and engaging portraits. Her passions for visual storytelling led her to Israel in 2002, during the second antifada.  

Gillian spent the next four years photographing and collecting testimonies from Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinians all directly and indirectly affected by the complicated, geopolitical context in which they live, creating a platform for dialogue. This project was published by Aperture titled “Testimony”. Gillian’s work is widely exhibited and works for many publications and commissions. She discussed her approach to her subjects and the genesis of her projects. Whether she is commissioned to photograph a celebrity, political figure, or in a conflict zone, she manages to create an uncanny intimacy that is deeply revealing. Recently she revisited a story that haunted her since a magazine assignment in 2002.  

After the 2002 publication of a story about racially segregated school homecomings in Georgia, the school stopped with the longstanding tradition. Yet, they continued holding segregated proms. She will be talking about this new project in the south.


Teru Kuwayama:
Tribe Against Empire
Thursday, October 22nd, 6:30pm

Gerd LudwigTeru Kuwayama focused on the ill-defined region now known as “the central front” in the war on terror. This region includes the failing states of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the conflicted border regions shared by Pakistan with Afghanistan and India. The photographs were made between 2002 and 2009 in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Pakistan and Indian administered Kashmir.

Kuwayama, 38, has received fellowships from the Alicia Patterson Foundation and the W. Eugene Smith Fund for his reporting on Afghanistan and Pakistan. His previous work on the Tibetan refugee diaspora received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace, and has been exhibited at the Open Society Institute and at the United Nations headquarters in New York. In 2004, Esquire magazine profiled him as among the "Best and Brightest" of his generation for his reportage on the occupation of Iraq. In 2005, Photo District News cited his work in Kashmir in a selection of the most iconic images in contemporary photography. His work has appeared in publications including Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, Vibe, and Doubletake. Aside from his work as a photographer, he is the founder and director of November Eleven, a registered non-profit organization. November Eleven’s volunteer-run programs support independent media, education, and humanitarian assistance projects around the world. He is the co-founder of Lightstalkers, a web-based network of photographers, filmmakers and media workers, as well as members of the military and NGO communities.


Sara Terry and Louie Palu:
War is Only Half the Story: A Conversation with Sara Terry and Louie Palu
Thursday, October 29th, 6:30pm

Sara TerrySara's long-term project about the aftermath of war in Bosnia -- "Aftermath: Bosnia’s Long Road to Peace" -- was published in September 2005 by Channel Photographics. Her work has been widely exhibited, at such venues as the United Nations, the Museum of Photography in Antwerp, and the Moving Walls exhibition at the Open Society Institute in New York. Her photographs are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and in many private collections. In 2005, she received a prestigious Alicia Patterson Fellowship for her work in Bosnia. She is also the founder of The Aftermath Project (www.theaftermathproject.org), a non-profit grant program which helps photographers cover the aftermath of conflict. She is represented by Polaris Images. She resides in Los Angeles and is currently working on her next long-term project, "Forgiveness and Conflict: Lessons from Africa."


Louie Palu Louie Palu has worked as a photojournalist for 20-years, focusing on the human condition and subjects frequently ignored by the popular media. Louie has been covering the war in Afghanistan from 2006-09 and has made several trips to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for a long-term project on the prison. His worked has been published worldwide including in The New York Times, TIME, NEWSWEEK, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and has appeared in numerous books, catalogues, festivals and exhibitions internationally, including being selected for the photojournalism festival Visa Pour L'Image in Perpignan, France five times, George Eastman House, Ping Yao Festival in China, Fotografia International Festival of Rome, and the New York Photo Festival. His 15-year project on hard rock miners in Canada won the Critical Mass Book Award in 2005 and was also a recipient of a Hasselblad Master Award, NPPA Best of Photojournalism Award, several awards from the White House News Photographers Association and was selected as the 2008 Canadian Photojournalist of the Year by the News Photographers Association of Canada.



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