Photo by Jacob Drabik

The Lens

The Lens is the FotoFocus editorial platform, highlighting our programming and featuring in-depth conversations on photography and the moving image drawn from perspectives and insights in our community, throughout our region, and around the globe.


Sun Dogs

Posted on May 22, 2023

FotoFocus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra present Sun Dogs. Named after an atmospheric optical phenomenon, the program features pairs of composers and filmmakers in collaboration, each offering a unique perspective of the natural world through short-format films fused with new music performed by the CSO, conducted by CSO Creative Partner, Matthias Pintscher. Produced in collaboration with Liquid Music as part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial: World Record, Sun Dogs seeks to understand the natural world that cannot be touched or measured. Typically a composer responds to a director’s ideas in a film scoring capacity, or a filmmaker is given music to respond... Continue reading Sun Dogs


I Hear America Singing: Contemporary Photography from America

Posted on March 22, 2022

The Columbus Museum of Art presents the exhibition I Hear America Singing: Contemporary Photography from America, on view at The Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art in the city’s Short North. Curated by Ashley Lumb, the exhibition was conceived for the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman, Jordan where it was presented in 2021. For Walt Whitman, the strength of the nation derived from the collective contributions of individuals, as was expressed in his poem “I Hear America Singing,” first published in the 1860 edition of Continue reading I Hear America Singing: Contemporary Photography from America

Refuge: Needing, Seeking, Creating Shelter

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Refuge: Needing, Seeking, Creating Shelter is a look at civil strife, economic insecurity, and proliferating environmental crises, as artists from across the globe explore the search for refuge—how, why, and where people need, seek, and create shelter. The technologies of transport have long determined the movement of people and goods, fueling the expansion of empire and capital, the displacement of communities and resources, the shapes of borders. As the global refugee crisis continues, ensuring universal access to human rights in a world where, as poet Amit Majmudar says, “There’s no America to sail to anymore,” will require seismic changes—changes potentially... Continue reading Refuge: Needing, Seeking, Creating Shelter


Wildest Dream

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Researching the effects of climate change on animal species, i.imagine teen photography students of Gray Middle School, Holmes Middle School, and Ryle High School were led by Zoo photographer Lisa Hubbard on an up-close and personal journey to meet and photograph endangered species of the Cincinnati Zoo. Focused on a mission of giving voice to the voiceless, students created photographs intended to emotionally connect viewers with animals, inspiring humans to apply their skills and knowledge to being part of the solution of climate change. This collection of large-format prints spans the entire outdoor walkway of the Zoo's former Polar Bear exhibit. By... Continue reading Wildest Dream

New Tides

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This exhibition highlights works concerned with the ebb and flow of social, political, and artistic trends and how these tropes and themes can return with differing focus and intensity. Presenting the swell of ideas, explorations, and concerns of emerging photographers from within the Midwest, the exhibition demonstrates how they see, process, and contextualize the recurrence and reemergence of social, political, and artistic trends in their own practices that establishes a new World Record. This exhibition serves as an artistic interpretation of world events/records from the perspective of emerging artists from across the Midwest. New Tides Continue reading New Tides