FotoFocus symposium to explore photography’s role in a changing world

FotoFocus is putting photography under the microscope this fall, exploring how the medium intersects with industry, labor and the environment at its 10th annual symposium. The daylong event, titled “Photo-Economics,” will take place Oct. 4 at Lightborne Studios in Over-the-Rhine. 

Kevin Moore, FotoFocus artistic director and curator, noted that its annual symposium and biennial themes always address “some essential aspect of photography while at the same time exploring how that aspect functions in the larger human sphere.”

And this year’s effort is no different.

This year’s symposium will feature leading artists and scholars exploring the industrial history of photography and its role in shaping social narratives. Participants include Katy Grannan, Alison Rossiter, Lauren Bon, Monica Bravo, Lee Ann Daffner and Benjamin Young.

The keynote conversation pairs acclaimed American photographer Mitch Epstein with New York University professor Robert Slifkin. Together, they’ll trace connections between the medium and themes of labor, political struggles, class and consumption, while reflecting on the beauty of the American landscape and the communities that work to protect it.

Details about the full schedule are below.

“Photo-Economics is about the resources of photography – what photography is materially, what it’s actually made of – and the impact on people’s lives that inevitably arise over competition for those material resources,” Moore said.

Marking a milestone

The symposium encapsulates FotoFocus’s broader mission as a Cincinnati-based nonprofit dedicated to advancing photography and lens-based art. 

Since 2010, the organization has partnered with artists, curators, educators and institutions across the region to expand the cultural conversation around media and artform. With more than 800 exhibitions and programs featuring over 3,000 artists, FotoFocus provides broad access to film and photography-inspired practices while maintaining a focus on intellectually rigorous programming.

Beyond offering a look at the field’s historic impact, FotoFocus is using the Fall Symposium as a way to look toward the future. The event will serve as a preview to what it has planned ahead for its future 14,700-square-foot FotoFocus Center at the northwest corner of Liberty and Sycamore streets, two blocks away from its current home.

The new facility, set to open next spring, will be the nonprofit’s first permanent home and the hub for the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial, themed “The Long View.” Beyond providing a state-of-the-art space for exhibitions and programming, the center represents a bold step forward in FotoFocus’s mission, creating a year-round hub for critical conversations about photography and its societal impact.

For those who want to experience these conversations firsthand, the October symposium is free and open to the public, with advance registration requested at fotofocus.org. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be available with support from the H.B., E.W. & F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation.

“FotoFocus is pleased to announce this timely theme and welcome guests to this year’s symposium,” said Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth, FotoFocus executive director. “‘Photo-Economics’… continues a tradition of collaborative thinking about the contemporary world through the medium of photography.”

Symposium schedule

Morning session: Material economics
Explores how photographic materials, such as silver, platinum and bitumen, connect to mining, land use and environmental degradation.

• 10 a.m. – “Photography’s Resource Dependencies,” moderated by Monica Bravo, Princeton University, with Katherine “Kappy” Mintie, Center for Creative Photography, and Kristen Gaylord, Milwaukee Art Museum
• 11 a.m. – “Artist Spotlight: Lauren Bon,” Metabolic Studio
• 11:30 a.m. – Break
• Noon – Conversation: Lee Ann Daffner and Alison Rossiter, Museum of Modern Art and Photographer, respectively
• 1 p.m. – Lunch

Afternoon session: Social economics
Examines photography’s role in documenting the human costs of extractive capitalism.

• 2 p.m. – “Critic Spotlight: Danielle Jackson on Tulsa,” critic and researcher
• 2:30 p.m. — “After Allan Sekula’s Fish Story,” moderated by Benjamin Young, Arizona State University, with Jaime Acosta Gonzalez and Jill Dawsey
• 3:30 p.m. — Break
• 4 p.m. — Artist Spotlight: Katy Grannan, photographer.
• 4:30 p.m. — Keynote conversation: Mitch Epstein and Robert Slifkin
• 6–8 p.m. — Reception with live music by Red Cedars

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