FotoFocus, the 12-year-old Cincinnati nonprofit dedicated to championing photography and lens-based art, announced that its founding executive director — Mary Ellen Goeke — will retire at the end of 2022.
It was 2010, and Tom Schiff thought that what Cincinnati really needed was a photography biennial. A huge one, one that had the potential to put Cincinnati on the map of international photography and lens-based hotspots.
FotoFocus, the Cincinnati-based nonprofit organization dedicated to championing photography and lens-based art, will open a new nearly $7 million arts center in Cincinnati by 2024.
FotoFocus announced plans for the sixth edition of what is the largest biennial of its kind in America, which will take place in Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus this October.
“Portraits in Faith” documents the role of spiritual experience inside and outside of formal religion, expected and unexpected, told in people’s own words, and enhanced by photographic portraits.
“I can’t do a 10-minute picture. Making someone’s portrait is a collaboration. If they want to do it in 10 minutes, that’s not a collaboration. That’s a snapshot.”