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Examining Photographic Archives: photographic portraiture as an event

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Join the Society of Design Arts, AIGA Baltimore and Stevenson University for a discussion with SHAN Wallace and Elena Volkova. The Blacks and Blues archive and the curation process for the exhibition Reflections: a brief history of looking at ourselves (2019) will be presented.

Wallace’s Blacks and Blues archive demonstrates the “Archive as Artwork” medium. This archive and search engine innovates and challenges how modern archives can be curated. It also shows us through photography the experiences, identities, inequalities and injustices of Black life, as well as, how to ethically accumulate primary source documents.

What drives people to sit for a portrait? was a primary question that guided co-curators Elena Volkova and Joe Tropea as they researched the Maryland Historical Society archives for the exhibition Reflections: a brief history of looking at ourselves. In addition to the exhibition, a secondary project was launched, photographing Baltimore residents using Tintypes, a 19th century photographic process. Tintype processes and photoshoots will also be featured in Volkova’s remarks for how they demonstrate the many ways of how the taking of a portrait is an event.

HOW TO ATTEND THE EVENT
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