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FotoFocus Leaves an Impact with the 2022 Biennial

Posted on February 28, 2023


Nearly 200,000 Visitors Attended Largest Edition to Date


FotoFocus, the nonprofit dedicated to championing  photography and lens-based art, is pleased to announce that the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial welcomed over 180,000 visitors to its exhibitions and events across Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton, and Columbus between October 2022 and early 2023. 

The 2022 Biennial featured a record number of nearly 800 artists, curators, and participants, and united the region by examining the relationship between lens-based art and the ever-changing world around us. Over 100 projects revolved around the theme World Record, which explored photography’s extensive record of life on earth, humankind’s impact on the natural world, and the choices we now face as a global community.

The month-long photography celebration opened with the Biennial Program Week from September 29–October 8, 2022, which featured screenings, panel discussions, keynote lectures, talks, and other engaging events in Cincinnati. These programs gathered key contemporary art and film figures, such as  Jason Allen-Paisant, Makeda Best, Mitch Epstein, Cheryl Finley, Dara Friedman, Ariel Goldberg,  Myra Greene, Baseera Khan, Jeff Orlowski-Yang, Xaviera Simmons, Ian Strange and Deborah Willis

Attendance figures have been collected from the 90 Participating Venues, including the Cincinnati Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center, Taft Museum of Art, 21c Museum Hotel, The Carnegie, Art Academy of Cincinnati, and many more, making this the largest collaboration in FotoFocus history.

“We are incredibly proud to have presented our largest biennial to date, both in the amount of collaborating venues and participants. The significance of lens-based art within the community is clear, and FotoFocus was thrilled to present a range of projects demonstrating photography’s ability to shift perceptions and see the world in a new light. As we close another successful biennial, we are looking ahead towards the 2024 Biennial as well as starting a new chapter with the opening of FotoFocus Center in early 2025, which will bring even more lens-based art programming to Cincinnati,” says Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth, FotoFocus Executive Director

Looking ahead, FotoFocus will soon welcome renowned Indigenous artist and filmmaker Sky Hopinka to Cincinnati for the organization’s Lecture and Visiting Artist Series. His lecture is free and open to the public and will take place at the Cincinnati Art Museum on Thursday, March 2nd, at 7pm.The seventh FotoFocus Biennial will take place in October 2024. For the latest information, please visit fotofocus.org.

Press Release originally published on February 28, 2023.