Talk

MFA Photography, Video and Related Media presents renowned photographer Mark Neville, who will be in conversation with department faculty member and advisor Adam Bell to discuss Neville's first commercially available book, Fancy Pictures (Steidl 2016). RSVP here.

In order to highlight social issues ranging from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among veterans to toxic waste disposal, Neville generally disseminates his photo books free of charge to the communities he photographs or to authorities and government policy makers, making Fancy Pictures his first commercially available book.

Neville works at the intersection of art and documentary, investigating the social function of photography. He makes lens-based works which have been realized and disseminated in a large array of contexts, as both still and moving image pieces, slideshows, films and giveaway books. His work has consistently looked to subvert the traditional role of social documentary practice, seeking to find new ways to empower the position of its subject over that of the author. Often working with closely knit communities in a collaborative process intended to be of direct, practical benefit to the subject, his photographic projects to date have frequently made the towns he portrays the primary audience for the work. Points of reference for his practice might include the ideas of Henri Lefebvre or the art works of Martha Rosler, John Berger or Hans Haacke.