American Geography | The Plains | Live Virtual Talk

Thursday, May 20, 2021
3 pm PT | 4 pm MT | 5 pm CT | 6 pm ET

THE ETHICS OF THE NEGATIVE: PHOTOGRAPHIC VISIONS OF THE PLAINS

The Great Plains of the United States are often portrayed through the lens of a colonial imaginary, as “nowhere” lands where vast stretches of “nothing” dominates. Yet photographs can serve as powerful tools to raise awareness about the complex subtleties that abound. One famous example is Dorothea Lange’s images produced in the 1930s for the Farm Security Administration that called attention to rural poverty. While highlighting some critical social issues, however, others historically have fallen outside of the photographer’s gaze. Join Terry Evans, Jenny Reardon, and Wendy Red Star for a conversation about the ethics of photography and its role in mediating our understandings of land and lives. Part of a series of conversations celebrating the launch of American Geography: Photographs of Land Use from 1840 to the Present, this event will focus on the Plains, with an emphasis on the unseen, the unrecognized, and what falls outside the frame. What relations is the photograph a trace of, and what relations does it fail to comprehend? How can photography respond to the ethics of the negative—what was cut, or never conceived—and thus learn to see more complexly?

Watch the full recording here: