All Past Events

5:30 p.m. April 15, 2014

On Tuesday, April 15th visual artist and writer Rebecca Najdowski will discuss how both the physical and conceptual terrains of the desert come to the surface in her artwork. These manifest in color analogue photograms, video, installation, and augmented reality interventions. In her practice she explores the potential of expanding photographic logic into other mediums through the creation of light installations and the engagement with materiality and limits of representation of photography and video. Najdowski uses the desert as a site to address notions of landscape, the sublime, phenomenology, perception, and the shifting territories of the intangible and the concrete. Rebecca Najdowski is currently a Visiting Professor of Photography at the University of Arizona and the Artist Fellow at the Center for Creative Photography.

11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. April 4, 2014

The “selfie” - which Urban Dictionary defines as “a picture taken of yourself that is planned to be uploaded to Facebook, Myspace or any other sort of social networking website” – is everywhere today. From Facebook to the Oscars, everyone is snapping pictures of themselves yet the selfie is not a new idea. People have been fascinated with producing images of themselves since the invention of photography in the 1800s. The April 4, 2014 Photo Friday at the Center for Creative Photography presents a variety of self-portraits by artists in the Center’s fine art photography collection.

8 a.m. April 1, 2014

The Center for Creative Photography is proud to announce the appointment of Joshua Chuang to the position of Chief Curator. Mr. Chuang, who has been the Richard Benson Associate Curator of Photography and Digital Media at the Yale University Art Gallery, will assume his new post in April 2014. At the CCP, one of the world’s premier university art museums and study centers for the history of photography, Mr. Chuang will lead the Center’s curatorial program, organizing exhibitions and publications as well as overseeing acquisitions.

5:30 p.m. March 27, 2014 to 5:30 p.m. May 1, 2014

The Spring 2014 Program Schedule for the CCP includes lectures by Penelope Umbrico with Kate Palmer Albers (March 27), Rebecca Najdowski (April 15), Sama Alshaibi (April 22), Anne Noble (April 25), and Rosalind Solomon (May 1)

5:30 p.m. March 27, 2014

On Thursday, March 27th, Penelope Umbrico and UA art history professor Kate Palmer Albers will discuss the artist’s photo-based installations, video, and digital media works that explore the ever-changing technologies of image making, and the ever-increasing production and consumption of images on the Internet. Utilizing photo-sharing and consumer websites as an expansive archive, Umbrico navigates between producer and consumer, local and global, and the individual and the collective.

11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. March 7, 2014

The March 2014 Photo Friday will celebrate the five photographers whose archives created the foundation for the Center for Creative Photography's collections -- Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind and Frederick Sommer. "5x5" will showcase the versatility of each photographer and the wide range of subjects that enthralled them during their artistic careers. On display will be five prints by each photographer, including recognizable images as well as images that may surprise viewers.

5:30 p.m. Feb. 20, 2014

On Thursday, February 20, UA photo professor Frank Gohlke will give a talk about his current project, a study of wild apple forests in Kazakhstan, funded by a Fulbright Scholar Research Grant. Gohlke’s apple passion dates back 40 years to a commencement address delivered by the late John Szarkowski to the graduating class of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Gohlke’s fascination grew during a three-year stay in Middlebury, Vermont, where he first experienced apple cider fresh from a press. "Apples" by Frank Browning (North Point Press, 1998), introduced Gohlke to the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan, from which domesticated apples grown across the world are derived. Gohlke’s lecture will include photographs of earlier projects that presage aspects of the Kazakhstan work, and a group of images made since December 2013 in the first stage of the current project.

11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 7, 2014

Music played an important role throughout Ansel Adams’ life. At the age of twelve, Adams taught himself to play the piano and to read music. For the next ten years or so he studied piano, intending to pursue a career as a concert pianist. Although he eventually gave up the piano for photography, music influenced his work as a photographer throughout his career. Adams said, “. . . the negative is similar to a musician's score, and the print to the performance of that score. The negative comes to life only when ‘performed’ as a print." The February 7, 2014 Photo Friday at the Center for Creative Photography will feature pairs and small groups of Adams photographs exploring an idea taken from music – themes and variations.

5:30 p.m. Jan. 16, 2014

Center for Creative Photography Archive photographer Charles Harbutt, subject of the current exhibition, will speak about his work and life in photography with independent curator Trudy Wilner Stack and photographer, editor, and educator, Joan Liftin. The three, colleagues for over thirty years, recently worked together on Harbutt’s retrospective book, Departures and Arrivals, the occasion for and centerpiece of the exhibition on view at CCP. They will discuss their thoughts on photography in the context of Harbutt’s long career as photojournalist, personal documentarian, and teacher. The evening will include a presentation by Harbutt of his most recent project, made in 2013. The Conversation will also consider the nature of photography itself, its practice and its presentation in exhibitions and publications, and the CCP Charles Harbutt Archive, established in 1997 when Wilner Stack was CCP Curator.

11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Jan. 3, 2014

Need something to smile about now that the new year has arrived? This Photo Friday looks at the lighter side of the Center’s collection with images that only photography can capture and preserve. Robert Doisneau is known for his wry, yet playful look at contemporary life in Paris, while Elliot Erwitt takes on the absurdities in life amidst his documentary endeavors. Both photographers’ works are included as well as those by John Gutmann, Jerry Uelsmann, and some individual baseball cards (with stats!) of your favorite artists by Mike Mandel.

11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Dec. 6, 2013

Known for his grand, expansive view of the spectacular in nature, Ansel Adams also captured nature’s “intimate” details in hundreds of photographs made throughout his career. These close-up views, from the anatomy of leaves to the murky crevice between rocks, are as captivating and inspiring as Adams more celebrated majestic views.

5 p.m. Nov. 7, 2013 to 5 p.m. May 31, 2014

The Center for Creative Photography is celebrating Charles Harbutt’s photographic work, and its relationship to the printed page. The exhibition will feature a complete set of prints from Harbutt’s newest publication, Departures and Arrivals; a short video in which Harbutt and Joan Liftin describe the book’s creative process; work prints from Harbutt’s 1959 trip to Cuba; and a slide show of over 150 photographs made on assignment, along with related clippings and tear sheets demonstrating Harbutt’s ability to work both sides of the divide between art and commerce to arrive at an original vision.

11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Nov. 1, 2013

Hollywood, self-proclaimed movie capital of the world, is home to the famous and infamous alike. From glamour shots to mug shots, photographers and photography played a pivotal role in making Hollywood what it is today.

5:30 p.m. Oct. 17, 2013

Andy Grundberg, associate provost of the Corcoran School of Art and Design, is an art critic, curator, and educator with over 25 years of experience specializing in writing about photography and video within contemporary art. His essays and articles for the New York Times and other publications are collected in Crisis of the Real (Aperture).

5:30 p.m. Oct. 10, 2013

Photographers Alejandra Platt-Torres and David Taylor have spent years along the U.S.-Mexico border, each separately documenting the landscape and the people. They will show and discuss their work in a forum moderated by Dr. Scott Whiteford, professor at the UA Center for Latin American Studies.

11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 4, 2013

This Photo Friday presents a variety of ways one can experience the repetitious quality of photography—not only between multiple images from the same negative, but also within individual images, their content, and formal aspects. And, of course, this idea is interpreted with broad curatorial license from the Center’s deep collection. Included in the selection are works by Diane Arbus, Stephan Diller, Rosalind Solomon, Stephen Sprague, and Garry Winogrand, among others.

5:30 p.m. Sept. 25, 2013

Panel Discussion: Ann Simmons Myers, moderator, Melanie Walker, Teresa Engle Schirmer, and Alex Sweetman

11 a.m. Sept. 25, 2013

In celebration of the 96th anniversary of Todd’s birth, the Center for Creative Photography declares Wednesday, September 25, Todd Walker Day! 11:00am and 4:00pm - Gallery Talk presented by Melanie Walker, Todd’s daughter and Associate Professor, IMAP and Photography, University of Colorado at Boulder.

5:30 p.m. Sept. 24, 2013

The Center for Creative Photography and the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry will explore the issues surrounding water and sustainability in the desert with a panel discussion entitled "Water: Where Science and Art Meet."