Special Event

MFA Photography, Video and Related Media welcomes the public to its 30th Anniversary Book Fair and Scheimpflug Lecture Series, a celebration of 30 years of photographic practice and the art of book making. At this three-day event, which will feature the work of department alumni, faculty, students and friends, visitors will explore a wide variety of published works on display and for sale, and be able to attend related panel discussions. RSVP here.

Additionally, the first Visual Arts Foundation/Crossed Purposes Writing Grant winner, Nora Khan, will give a presentation of her award-winning writing and research on the analysis of machine learning and photographic imagery, published recently in The Brooklyn Rail under the title "Seeing, Naming, Knowing."

The book fair and Scheimpflug lectures will be the latest in a series of 2018 – 2019 events commemorating the 30th anniversary of MFA Photography, Video and Related Media at SVA. Begun in 1988 and still led by its founding chair, Charles H. Traub, the program has led the field in the expansion of the lens and screen arts and its intellectual, critical and practical support of new technologies.

The full schedule is below. All events are free and open to the public.

Thursday, April 11, 6:30 – 9:00pm 
Process, Publishing and the Photographer's Practice
MFA Photography, Video and Related Media alumnus and faculty member Jeremy Haik (2012) moderates a discussion about longtime faculty member Marvin Heiferman’s latest book and project, Seeing Science, featuring Heiferman, alumnus and artist Sarah Palmer (2008) and Magali Duzant of Conveyor Arts. Refreshments will be provided and visitors are invited to browse the book fair following the discussion.

Friday, April 12, 1:00 – 6:00pm
Alternative Walls and Pagesand Open Viewing Hours
View the fair’s collection of works by lens-based book makers and attend a panel discussion, beginning at 1:30pm. Featuring artist and SVA faculty member Marc Joseph Berg, and Peter Cohen and Cay-Sophie Rabinowitz of OSMOS Magazinethe talk will focus on the trio’s recent collaboration for OSMOS, as well the unique ways each contribute to published photography.

Saturday, April 13, 1:00 – 6:00pm 
Visual Arts Foundation/Crossed Purposes Writing Grant Winner Nora Khan and Open Viewing Hours
A presentation by the first VAF/Crossed Purposes Writing Grant winner, writer Nora Khan, on machine learning and the interpretation of photographic imagery. The VAF/Crossed Purposes Grant, introduced last year, supports the creation of critical writing that encourages new perspectives on photography and its extended practice. Following Khan’s talk, which begins at 1:00pm, visitors are invited to view the fair’s collection of works by lens-based book makers.

ABOUT

Charles H. Traub is the founder and chair of the MFA Photography, Video and Related Media program at the School of Visual Arts, and President of the Aaron Siskind Foundation for the support of creative photography. Traub is a former chair of the photography department at Columbia College Chicago, where he organized the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography, the predecessor to the Museum of Contemporary Photography.

Marc Joseph Berg is a visual artist, teacher and art book editor. His artwork includes drawings, objects, paintings, photographs and videos; he is currently at work on a sound-based project. Two monographs of his photographs, New and Used (2006) and American Pitbull (2003), have been published by Steidl, and his work has been featured in select exhibitions in the United States, Canada and Europe. He holds an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.

Jeremy Haik received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2012 and his BA degrees, in studio art and English literature, from the University of Maryland. His work has been exhibited at White Box Gallery, Visual Arts Gallery NY, Transformer Gallery, Civilian Art Projects and Conveyor Arts, among others. He currently writes for Conveyor magazine and is an adjunct professor of photography and video at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design and Ramapo College.

Nora Khan is a writer specializing in criticism on emerging issues within digital visual culture, experimental art and music practices, and philosophy of emerging technology. She is a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she teaches graduate students critical theory and artistic research, critical writing for artists and designers, and the history of digital media. She is a longtime editor at Rhizome and an editor of Prototype, the book of Google’s Artist and Machine Intelligence Group, due out later this year.

Her writing has been supported by many awards over the last decade, including, most recently, the Visual Arts Foundation/Crossed Purposes Writing Grant (2018), an Eyebeam Research Residency (2017) and a Thoma Foundation Arts Writing Award (2016). She consistently publishes criticism in places like 4Columns, Art in America, Flash Art, Mousse, California Sunday Magazine, Spike Art, The Village Voice and Rhizome. Last year, she wrote a small book with Steven Warwick, Fear Indexing the X-Files, published by Primary Information.

Crossed Purposes Foundation, Inc., is a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to educational and cultural service in the visual arts. Its broad goal is to expand public dialogue about issues in the history and criticism of photography and the role of socially and politically engaged art in the world at large.

The Brooklyn Rail, an independent forum for arts, culture and politics throughout New York City and far beyond, was founded in October 2000 and is currently published 10 times annually. The Brooklyn Rail, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, distributes its journal free of charge around New York City and ships to a growing list of national and international subscribers.

Visual Arts Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the arts as both individual vocation and social force. The foundation supports emerging artists and broadens audiences for their work, fosters a climate that values and seeks understanding of the arts and increases visual literacy and appreciation for “the artist’s life.”