The Aperture Foundation, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, and the Photography program at Parsons The New School for Design present a special screening of The Forgotten Space, a film by Allan Sekula and Noël Burch. The evening concludes with a conversation with Sekula, scholar Kristin Ross and independent film curator Chi-hui Yang.

The Forgotten Space follows container cargo aboard ships, barges, trains and trucks; listening to workers, engineers, planners, politicians, and those marginalized by the global transport system. We visit displaced farmers and villagers in Holland and Belgium, underpaid truck drivers in Los Angeles, seafarers aboard mega-ships shuttling between Asia and Europe, and factory workers in China—whose low wages are the fragile key to the whole puzzle. In Bilbao, we discover the most sophisticated expression of the belief that the maritime economy, and the sea itself, are somehow obsolete.

A range of materials is used: descriptive documentary, interviews, archive stills and footage, and clips from old movies. The result is an essayistic, visual documentary about one of the most important processes that affects us today. The Forgotten Space is based on Sekula’s book Fish Story (1995), seeking to understand and describe the contemporary maritime world in relation to the complex, symbolic legacy of the sea.

Aperture Foundation, the Photography Program in the School of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics present a panel entitled Contemporary Documentary Practices, as part of the ongoing series, Confounding Expectations: Photography in Context.

Martha Rosler’s seminal critique of documentary photography in the 1981 text In, Around and Afterthoughts on Documentary Photography, this panel explores the viability of documentary practices today, both within the contemporary art realm and in the larger context of visual culture. In the 1981 text, Rosler claimed that documentary photography has yet to be realized in its full potential. Moving from a direct critique of documentary photographic practices, many contemporary photographers are utilizing art strategies to initiate and maintain social and political engagement through the use of the photographic medium. This discussion aims to examine photography’s ability to fostering social change in the contemporary moment and in generating a discussion about the importance of institutional and discursive framing in determining photographic meaning. Moderated by Susan Bright, panelists include LaToya Ruby Frazier, Chris Verene, and Michael Wolf.

The Aperture Foundation, the photography department in the School of Art, Media and Technology, and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics present a provocative panel discussion Images, Surveillance, and Power. Since its invention, the camera has been used to make images surreptitiously and to satisfy the desire to see what is hidden. Today, cameras on street corners, in shops, and public buildings silently record our every move, while web-based tools such as Google Earth adapt satellite technology to ensure that there is no escape from the camera’s all-seeing eye. Moderated by Tom Vanderbilt, panelists Trevor Paglen, and Jill Magid discuss how they use contemporary photographic technologies to examine issues of voyeurism, privacy law, security control and freedom of media.

This panel will explore the multiple ways in which contemporary artists have utilized projection and installation strategies to display still photographic images, creating immersive and cinema-like experiences in museum and gallery environments. Departing from the large-scale, tableau treatments of the photographic image printed and framed as wall-based objects, exemplified in works by Jeff Wall, Andreas Gursky, and Gregory Crewdson, in recent years contemporary artists have increasingly employed projection devices––ranging from analogue to digital high-definition––to display photographic images as immaterial light projections, often incorporating temporal and audio-visual elements that evoke experiences recalling cinematic contexts and yet retain distinctly photographic qualities. The Aperture Foundation, publisher of Aperture magazine, is a not-for-profit institution dedicated to the support and advancement of photography as a fine art. The lecture series has been hosted by The New School since 2001. It is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Presented by the Aperture Foundation in association with the Department of Photography at Parsons The New School for Design and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, with generous support from the Ketterling Family Foundation and the Henry Nias Foundation.

The Aperture Foundation, the Photography Department at Parsons The New School for Design, and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics present a new season of panel discussions focusing on photography. This event celebrates the launch of the innovative Los Angeles County Museum of Art book project Words Without Pictures, which documents roughly one year of conversations about the most pressing issues shaping contemporary photography.  Please join us for a panel discussion about Words Without Pictures and the contemporary landscape of artist books and photo publishing.

This lecture series is presented with generous support from the Kettering Family Foundation and the Henry Nias Foundation. The program is made possible in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.