On May 29, 2025, MoCP presented a series of conversations exploring authorship, representation, and the dissemination of information as they relate to the past, present, and future of photography. This special edition of Focal Point Extras captures a discussion between photographer Susan Meiselas and writer, critic, and photographer Teju Cole on the topic “What Does It Mean to Look at These Photographs?” The two consider three bodies of work by Meiselas spanning several decades to examine the politics of looking at photographs—especially when those images depict stories of human struggle, suffering, and conflict.

On May 29, 2025, MoCP presented a series of conversations that explored topics of authorship, representation, and the dissemination of information as they relate to the past, present, and future of photography. This special edition of Focal Point Extras captures the conversation between scholar and educator Laura Wexler (Yale University) and artist, art historian, and educator Shawn Michelle Smith (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) on the topic of “The Living Archive.” The two discuss artists who work with archives to expand fixed notions of history, and people who call for a reassessment of ownership and control over photographed people within archives. This symposium was in conjunction with the exhibition, Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography in Dialogue with the MoCP Collection curated by Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Laura wexler, and MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and Collections, Kristin Taylor. Image credit: Aaron Turner, Untitled, Self Extended, from Black Alchemy Vol. 3, 2020

Reshaping the Authorial Position This special edition of Focal Point Extras captures a live conversation between artists Eric Gottesman and Wendy Ewald on the topic of “Reshaping the Authorial Position.” The two explored the ways artists place collaboration with the photographed person at the forefront of their process, and how they convey their partnership using text, staging techniques, or experimental exhibition platforms.

On May 29, 2025, MoCP presented a series of conversations that explored topics of authorship, representation, and the dissemination of information as they relate to the past, present, and future of photography. This special edition of Focal Point Extras captures the conversation between artist Dawoud Bey and scholar Leigh Raiford on the topic of “The Photographed Person was Always There.” The two explored the critical role of the photographed person in portraiture, and how they shape images and their meaning. This symposium was in conjunction with the exhibition, Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography in Dialogue with the MoCP Collection curated by Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Laura wexler, and MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and Collections, Kristin Taylor. Images discussed in this conversation include: Dawoud Bey, A Man in a Bowler Hat, from the Harlem, USA portfolio, 1976 Dawoud Bey, A Woman Waiting In The Doorway, from the Harlem, USA portfolio, 1976 Dawoud Bey, Untitled #7 (Branches and Woods), from Night Coming Tenderly, Black, 2017 For more information on Dawoud Bey’s work in the MoCP collection, please visit this link.

In this episode, MoCP Executive Director, Natasha Egan, sits down with artist Christina Fernandez. The two discuss Christina’s decades-long career in pushing the boundaries of photography, blending her personal history as a Mexican American woman with broader cultural narratives about migration, labor, and gender. Natasha and Christina additionally discuss a piece in the MoCP permanent collection by Sidian Liu. Christina Fernandez has been featured in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Aart, the Getty, and MoMA New York, just to name a few. Ferndandez is a 2021 Latinx Artist Fellowship honoree. She is also an influential educator, currently serving as an associate professor at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California where she has been on faculty since 2001. Fernandez’s exhibition Multiple Exposures, is on view at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago from March 20 - August 3, 2025, and it the first major museum survey of her work and has traveled to institutions across the county for the last three years.

In this episode, artists Meghann Riepenhoff and Penelope Umbrico chat with MoCP curator, Kristin Taylor. The two artists discuss their backgrounds and shared interests in experimenting and pushing the indexical qualities of photography, as well as the work of Alison Rossiter and Joanne Leonard.

This episode features Jay Wolke and Eli Giclas in conversation with MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and Collections, Kristin Taylor. Jay and Eli discuss their photographic approaches to depict the built environment as a reflection of patterns of human consumption and an imbalanced relationship with nature. They also discuss their appreciation of works by Stan Douglas and Dawn Kim in the MoCP permanent collection.

In this episode, MoCP Curator of Academic Programs and Collections, Kristin Taylor, chats with Susan Meiselas and Wendy Ewald about their new publication titled Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography. Made with Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Leigh Raiford, and Laura Wexler, the book is a deep dive into current and historical photographic projects about human stories. It spotlights how the person depicted is often left out of the history as a co-maker of the images and asks us to imagine a way forward from coercive photographic practices. To see works in the MoCP permanent collection by artists presented in the book or discussed this episode, please go here.

This episode of Focal Point features two exhibiting artists from LOVE: Still Not the Lesser (on view August 17 - December 23, 2023) in conversation with Asha Iman Veal, MoCP Associate Curator. Jorian Charlton (b. 1989 Canada) is an artist who focuses on her generation of peers within the Caribbean diaspora—authoring their canon of Black Canadian representation. Yuge Zhou 周雨歌 (b. 1985 China) applies her perspective of a Chinese diaspora immigration experience for the video series Love Letters (summer) and Love Letters (winter) 2021. Together, they discuss their respective inspirations and artistic practices, as well as works by Carrie Mae Weems and Dylan Vitone in the MoCP collection. View Charlton's work – https://joriancharlton.com/ and Zhou’s work – https://yugezhou.com/.

In this episode, MoCP Executive Director Natasha Egan leads a discussion with Chicago-based artists and educators Bob Thall and Cecil McDonald, Jr. Thall was an educator at Columbia College Chicago from 1978-2017, and both Egan and McDonald were once students in his classroom. Thall and McDonald discuss their mutually influential relationship to art-making and to teaching, and the legacies of photographic education in Chicago. They also discuss their thoughts on work by Kathryn Harrison and Joseph Jachna in the MoCP permanent collection.

This episode of Focal Point features two exhibiting artists from LOVE: Still Not the Lesser (on view August 17 - December 23, 2023) in conversation with Asha Iman Veal, MoCP Associate Curator. Tom Merilion (England, b. 1967) and Alicia Bruce (Scotland, b. 1979) discuss their respective inspirations and artistic practices, as well as works by Joel Sternfeld, and David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson in the MoCP collection.

In this episode, Shannon Bool (Berlin) and Tarrah Krajnak (Eugene, OR and Los Angeles, CA) are in conversation with Kristin Taylor, MoCP’s Curator of Academic Programs and Collections. The artists discuss topics including the role of modernism, the male gaze, and performance in their practice, as well as the work of Jan Groover and Harry Callahan.

In this episode, Abelardo Morell is in conversation with MoCP chief curator and deputy director, Karen Irvine. The two discuss Abe’s many decades experimenting with photography and the camera obscura, painting, parenthood, and Berenice Abbott’s Science Pictures, among other topics.

This episode features a special live edition of Focal Point hosted by Asha Iman Veal, Associate Curator at the MoCP. She meets with author and photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani and photographer and artist Jason Reblando as a part of the PHotoESPAÑA festival. They share photos that impacted each other from the MoCP collection and discuss the Filipino diaspora, social injustice, and how photography can influence society. 

In this episode, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist John H. White (Chicago) is in conversation with Ampersand/Photoworks Fellowship winner and Afropean author Johny Pitts (London). The two discuss love of community as a foundation for image making, as well as works in the MoCP’s collection by Gordon Parks and André Kertész.

Steph Foster and Steven Tourlentes discuss their projects in photography and film that shed light on some of the many stories and systems surrounding mass incarceration in the United States that are largely concealed from public view. Additionally, Steph and Steven discuss works in the MoCP’s permanent collection by Kris Graves and Zora J Murff.

In this episode, MoCP Curatorial Fellow, Asha Iman Veal, is in conversation with artist Işıl Eğrikavuk and artist duo Cognate Collective (Amy Sanchez-Arteaga and Misael Diaz). Together they discuss their thoughts on nationality, identity, creative influences and their works included the MoCP exhibition, Beautiful Diaspora: You Are Not The Lesser Part. The artists also share their thoughts on other works in the museum’s collection by Laia Abril, Doretha Lange and David Taylor. To help stop the spread of Covid-19, this episode was recorded over Zoom and not in the WCRX studios.

MoCP Curator, Kristin Taylor, is in conversation with artists Laia Abril and Elinor Carucci. They discuss depictions of the female body and their works in the MoCP exhibition, Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency.

In this episode, MoCP Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Karen Irvine, sits down with artists Jess T. Dugan and Rafael Soldi of the Strange Fire Collective to discuss the founding of Strange Fire and its mission to showcase works made by women, people of color, and queer and trans artists. Dugan and Soldi also speak about their own practice as working artists, and their thoughts on the work of Harry Callahan and Diane Arbus in the museum’s collection. To help stop the spread of Covid-19, this episode was recorded live in front of an audience over Zoom and not in the WCRX studios.

In this episode, renowned photographers Kenneth Josephson and Marilyn Zimmerwoman are in conversation with Museum of Contemporary Photography’s curator of academic programs and collections, Kristin Taylor. The artists discuss several works made over Josephson’s decades-long career as well as topics ranging from composition and perspective to the male gaze and Marilyn Monroe.