PHOTO-ECONOMICS

FotoFocus is pleased to announce its fall 2025 Symposium: Photo-Economics. Delving into the industrial history of photography and photography’s role in the shaping of social narratives, Photo-Economics will bring together artists, scholars, and advocates whose work considers photography’s centrality to modern life. Through discussions, solo presentations and performance, participants will explore issues of global industrialization and distribution, including the impacts of these realities on social and political systems. Photo-Economics marks the 10-year anniversary of the FotoFocus Symposium, continuing a tradition of collaborative thinking about the contemporary world through the medium of photography.

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.

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.