FotoFocus Announces Fall 2025 Symposium: Photo-Economics
Posted on August 21, 2025
With keynote conversation between Mitch Epstein and Robert Slifkin, and talks featuring Lauren Bon, Lee Ann Daffner, Katy Grannan, Danielle Jackson, Alison Rossiter, and others
Cincinnati, OH (August 21, 2025) — FotoFocus announces its Fall 2025 Symposium: Photo-Economics, an all-day event on Saturday, October 4, 2025, at Lightborne Studios (212 E 14th Street). Delving into the industrial history of photography and its role in shaping social narratives, the lineup includes leading voices, such as artists Mitch Epstein, Katy Grannan, Alison Rossiter, and Lauren Bon, as well as scholars such as Robert Slifkin, Monica Bravo, Lee Ann Daffner, and Benjamin Young, each exploring aspects of photography’s part in systems of global industrialization and distribution, including the impacts of these realities on social and political systems. A reception following the symposium will feature live music from local band Red Cedars.
“The FotoFocus symposium and biennial themes always address some essential aspect of photography while at the same time exploring how that aspect functions in the larger human sphere,” says Kevin Moore, Artistic Director and Curator at FotoFocus. “Photo-Economics is about the resources of photography–what photography is materially, what it’s actually made of–and the impact on people’s lives that inevitably arise over competition for those material resources.”
The keynote conversation will feature leading American photographer Mitch Epstein and NYU professor Robert Slifkin. They will elaborate upon the themes of the day, offering a deeper look at the medium of photography against the backdrop of labor and political struggles in relation to resources, class, and consumption, while emphasizing the beauty of the American landscape and the people who feel compelled to protect it.
“FotoFocus is pleased to announce this timely theme and welcome guests to this year’s symposium,” says Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth, Executive Director. “Photo-Economics marks the tenth anniversary of this signature program and continues a tradition of collaborative thinking about the contemporary world through the medium of photography.”
The event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested. Those interested can register here. For more information, please visit fotofocus.org. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided, financially assisted by H.B., E.W. & F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Trustee. For questions regarding accessibility accommodations at FotoFocus events, please contact info@fotofocus.org.
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
Saturday, October 4, 9am–5:30pm at Lightborne Studios
Morning Session: Material Economics
Centering on the materials of photographic processes, such as silver, platinum, and bitumen, these conversations consider photography’s embeddedness with economies of mining, industrialization, land use, and environmental degradation.
9am | Light Bites and Coffee |
9:45am | Welcome |
10am | Panel: Photography’s Resource Dependencies Moderated by Monica Bravo, Assistant Professor at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, with panelists Katherine “Kappy” Mintie, Head of Collections at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ, and Kristen Gaylord, Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI |
11am | Artist Spotlight: Lauren Bon Lauren Bon, Metabolic Studio, Los Angeles, CA |
11:30am | Break |
Noon | Conversation: Lee Ann Daffner and Alison Rossiter LeeAnn Daffner, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Conservator of Photographs at The Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn, NY, and Alison Rossiter, Photographer, Atlantic Highlands, NJ |
1pm | Lunch |
Afternoon Session: Social Economics
The afternoon session examines photography’s role in communicating the human consequences of extractive capitalism, documenting and disseminating narratives ranging from post-industrial poverty to boom-time wealth.
2pm | Critic Spotlight: Danielle Jackson on Tulsa Danielle Jackson, Critic and Researcher, Bronx, NY |
2:30pm | Panel: After Allan Sekula’s Fish Story Moderated by Benjamin Young, Clinical Assistant Professor of Art History & Museum Studies at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, with panelists Jaime Acosta Gonzalez, Postdoctoral Fellow, Riverside, CA, and Jill Dawsey, Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA |
3:30pm | Break |
4pm | Artist Spotlight: Katy Grannan Katy Grannan, Photographer, Big Lagoon, CA |
4:30pm | Keynote Conversation: Mitch Epstein and Robert Slifkin Mitch Epstein, Photographer, New York, NY, and Robert Slifkin, Edith Kitzmiller Professor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, New York, NY |
6–8pm | Red Cedars Performance and Reception Red Cedars: Patrick Kennedy, Musician, Petersburg, KY, and Dinah Devoto, Musician, Villa Hills, KY |
Information about each of the participants can be found here.