April 22, 2021
7 PM EST
How do we use photography today to assert our kinship to the natural world? Do photographs support or undermine our appreciation for both nature’s role in our life and our role in nature’s life? Photographer Jesse Lenz and photography writer and historian George Slade will examine and discuss work from Lenz’ recent book The Locusts (Charcoal Press, 2020). The photographs, featuring interactions between his family and the agrarian landscape in which they live, form the basis for a consideration of place, purpose, and discovery.
Jesse Lenz (1988, Montana) is a self-taught photographer and multidisciplinary artist. As an illustrator he has created images for the most well-respected publications around the world, including TIME, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and many others. He is the founder and director of Charcoal Book Club, Charcoal Press, and the Chico Hot Springs Portfolio Review. From 2011-2018 he also co-founded and published The Collective Quarterly and The Coyote Journal. He lives on a farm in rural Ohio.
George Slade was born 1961 in St. Paul, MN. He is a writer, curator, and photography historian living in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. He has an undergraduate degree in American Studies from Yale University and a graduate degree in Organizational Leadership from St. Catherine University. He has served in curatorial roles at Walker Art Center, Minnesota Museum of American Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Art (a.k.a. Mia), Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, and Minnesota Center for Photography, where he was artistic director from 2003 to 2008. He directed the Photography Fellowship program for the McKnight Foundation (Minneapolis) from 1998 to 2008. His writings, including book reviews and artist features, appear in a range of in-print and online publications. He has lectured, served as a portfolio reviewer and grant panelist, and provided individual consultation for photographic artists and organizations for over thirty-five years.
Support for Thursday Night Photo Talks is provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Artist fees for the Thursday Night Photo Talks have been underwritten by The Lillian F. and Jerome L. Sindler Fund for Visual Media.
