As 2019 draws to a close…
Posted on December 3, 2019
Dear Friends,
FotoFocus had a tremendously exciting and successful year in presenting and supporting the region’s finest in lens-based art. As 2019 draws to a close, we want to share highlights from this past year and kick-off the celebration of our 10-year anniversary in 2020. At FotoFocus, we collaborate to present and support photography and lens-based projects that are accessible, enriching, and engaging to a diverse public through our Biennials, Symposiums, Lecture Series, and countless other community building endeavors.
In continued pursuit of our mission, we started the year collaborating with the Contemporary Arts Center, the University of Cincinnati Center for Film and Media Studies, and our partners at Lightborne to bring the outstanding performance BERLIN: Zvizdal [Chernobyl, so far — so close].
In April, we saw a record-breaking, standing-room only talk by William Wegman at both the Cincinnati Art Museum and to area university students the next day. In June, we partnered with the Cincinnati Museum Center to present the exhibition, Until We Meet Again: Cincinnati Portraits from World War l, 1917–1919 which showcased original photographs from the regions World War I Servicemembers.
October brought the FotoFocus all-day Symposium, AutoUpdate: Photography in the Electronic Age and accompanying regional juried exhibition, AutoUpdate to The Carnegie in Covington, Kentucky. The Symposium featured stellar panels of international artists, academics, and curators, and an exceptional keynote by Trevor Paglen. The Exhibition and Symposium addressed digital technology’s impact on photography and video, and its disruption of art making and news cycles in a media obsessed world and brought together a diverse audience from around the tri-state.
At year’s end, we look forward to what is coming next. FotoFocus will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary, in addition to, presenting our largest Biennial ever! The 2020 FotoFocus Biennial theme, light&, explores light and its contrasts in relation to photography and lens-based art, and the world at large. The upcoming Biennial will activate museums, galleries, universities, and public spaces throughout Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio in October 2020. The Biennial week of programming will be held October 1–4, 2020 and will welcome global artists, curators, critics, educators, and regional visitors to Cincinnati with exhibitions, talks, performances, screenings, and panel discussions related to the theme.
The team at FotoFocus strives to bring the region unique educational opportunities, present high caliber lens-based artists, curators and academics, and to ignite conversations around the medium. None of this would be possible without our Partners, Participating Venues, and Photography Lovers like you. Please consider adding FotoFocus to your end of the year giving list. We look forward to spending another wonderful year together and hope to see you in 2020.
Best wishes for a wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!
Mary Ellen Goeke
Executive Director