Special Events

Pima Community College (PCC) and the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) present "Pride of Expression: LatinX Photography and Low Rider Culture," sponsored by Bank of America. Join us for a talk by Nadiah Rivera Fellah, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, who will delve into LatinX photography. The event will also feature a special display of low riders from Tucson's "Sophisticated Few Car Club."

This lecture is held in conjunction with PCC's Preserving Bernal's Legacy exhibition and CCP's Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva.

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Join us for a Sobremesa at Futuro!

As part of CCP's year-long "CCP Community Tables" project, our sobremesas combine food and art to build connections and create engaging spaces for community exchange. Inspired by the Spanish and Latin American tradition of sobremesa—where conversations continue after a meal—CCP will host five special sobremesas during Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva. These events will feature collaborations between a visual artist and a Southern Arizona-based chef, offering a unique interactive experience that blends food, art, and meaningful conversation.

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Join us for an opening celebration of Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva, beginning with a lecture by curator Elizabeth Ferrer at 6:00 p.m. Seating is limited, advanced registration is required. Ferrer's talk will also be live-streamed. 

After the talk at 7:00 p.m., Ferrer and Becky Senf, CCP's chief curator, will be available to sign copies of the companion publication, Louis Carlos Bernal: Monografía, co-published by Aperture and the Center for Creative Photography. 

Then celebrate with a lively reception until 9:00 p.m.! 

This event is made possible through the support from the members of the Center for Creative Photography.

Major support for the exhibition and its companion publication is provided by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. 

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Corporate sponsorship is by Bank of America. 

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Photography Network Symposium

Call for Papers: 2024 Photography Network symposium “In Relation: Photography’s Communities” 

October 25-27, 2024 

Tucson, Arizona + virtual (hybrid) 

Photography Network will convene its fourth annual symposium in the Sonoran Desert Borderlands city of Tucson, Arizona in partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. Grounded in the themes that arise in three CCP-organized exhibitions of Latinx photography that will be on view this fall (Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva, curated by Elizabeth Ferrer; Chicana Photographers LA, curated by Sybil Venegas; and Laura Aguilar: Nudes in Nature, curated by Sybil Venegas and Christopher Velasco), “In Relation” will consider how communities are made visible, defined, and constituted through photography.  

In her book Latinx Photography in the United States: A Visual History (2021), Elizabeth Ferrer writes: “As the photographer/subject relationship shifted from outsider/insider to insider/insider [in the late twentieth century], the photograph became less an ethnographic document than an autonomous and self-validating form of individual and community expression.” This shift highlights questions of agency, circulation, diaspora, and storytelling that are relevant to the practice and institutional interpretation of photography. Taking this idea as a point of departure, we invite proposals that broadly respond to the following questions and themes: 

• How have artists, especially those from Latinx communities, used photography to probe issues of visibility, belonging, and representation? How do their artistic practices constitute forms of activism? 

• Who has the right to tell stories for whom?  

• How does the circulation of photographs create—or restrict—communities of subjects and viewers? 

• How have borders—in the US and beyond—shaped histories of photography, and how has photography from borderlands challenged state-imposed divisions?

• What alternate models might exist for interpreting photographs and photographic practices that transcend simplistic binaries such as “insider” versus “outsider”? 

• What do authentically relational, community-centered curatorial practices look like? How are methodologies such as community advisory councils rethinking the notion of curatorial voice and storytelling?  

Submission Information

Photography Network invites proposals across disciplines and a broad range of subjects that reflect the geographic and thematic diversity of the field. Practitioners and scholars at any stage of their careers are welcome to submit their research. We also welcome international scholars but note that the conference will be in English. 

The symposium organizers encourage a variety of presentational styles. In addition to proposals for individual, 20-minute papers relating to the themes outlined above, we also seek submissions for a workshop on the topic of community-centered exhibition development and for a roundtable featuring presentations from artist activists .
Please prepare for submission:

(1)  a 250-word abstract with a clear indication of format, and

(2)  a two-page resume or CV.

All files should be named “[LAST NAME]–CV” or “[LAST NAME]–ABSTRACT.”

Email completed materials by May 15 to the Photography Network Symposium organizing committee: Josie Johnson, Emilia Mickevicius, and Anne Cross at photographynetworksymposium@gmail.com. Notifications of accepted proposals will be emailed by mid-June. The schedule and registration information will be available by July 1 and the symposium will be held October 25–27, 2024. 

Note: All are welcome to apply. Accepted presenters must be Photography Network members in good standing at the time of the symposium. We have a sliding scale membership: $20 (student/unaffiliated), $40 (affiliated), or $100 (sustaining). We also have free need-based memberships. Please visit the Photography Network’s membership page (https://www.photographynetwork.net/memberregistration) for more information on how to join.

Join us for a panel discussion about The Place Where Clouds Are Formed, a collaborative project initiated in 2018 that explores the intersection of spirituality, migration, and historical policies affecting the Sonoran Desert borderlands. Moderated by poet Ofelia Zepeda (Tohono O’odham), panelists include artists Amber Lee Ortega (Hia Ced O’odham and Tohono O’odham), Su:k Chu:vak Fulwilder (Onk Akimel O'odham, Xalchidom Piipaash, Tlingit, Aleut, and Pomo), Monica Martínez, Gareth Smit, and Martín Zícari.

The fifth iteration of The Place Where Clouds Are Formed opens on April 6, 2024 as a single exhibition across two venues: the University of Arizona Poetry Center and the Center for Creative Photography’s Alice Chaiten Baker Interdisciplinary Gallery. It features photography created in partnership with traditional O’odham leaders and communities in Sonora, Mexico, and Southern Arizona, alongside poems in O’odham and English translated into Spanish.

Artist panel

10:00-11:30 a.m.

CCP Auditorium

Register today

Bios

Dr. Ofelia Zepeda is an O'odham poet and Regent's Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona, where she is also the director of the American Indian Language Development Institute. She is a founding collaborator of The Place Where Clouds are Formed.

Gareth Smit is a photographer and cinematographer based in New York City. Originally from South Africa, he is interested in collaborative approaches to documentary storytelling. He is a founding collaborator of The Place Where Clouds are Formed. 

Martín Zícari, Ph.D. is a writer, poet, and performance arts producer based in Brussels, Belgium. Originally from Argentina, his research deals with aesthetic representations of enforced disappearances in Mexico. He is a founding collaborator of The Place Where Clouds are Formed. 

Amber Lee Ortega is a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation and descendant of Hia-Ced O'odham. A spoken word poet and photographer, her work reflects efforts to reconnect with the lands sacred to Hia-Ced O'odham.

Su:k Chu:vak Fulwilder is Akimel O’odham, Xalchidom Piipaash, Tlingit, Aleut and Pomo from the Salt River Community. A poet, photographer and musician, she approaches art as a means of survival and visibility. 

Monica Martínez is a visual artist who uses photography, video, design, and installation to create conceptually based work focused on the hyper-normalization of violence in Northern Mexican society. Raised in the US-Mexico border area, she is also a photography educator.

Join us in celebration of The Place Where Clouds Are Formed, a visual art and poetry exhibition which examines the intersection of spirituality, migration, and current and historical policies that have impacted the borderlands of the Sonoran Desert. The special reading features poets Ofelia Zepeda, Amber Lee Ortega and Su:k Chu:vak Fulwilder. The event will be livestreamed here. 

We're grateful to be in collaboration with the University of Arizona Poetry Center on this project. 

We're grateful for support from the College of Humanities, Health Sciences Innovations in Healthy Aging, the W.A. Franke Honors College, and from supporters in the Poetry Center's Walt Whitman Circle for their underwriting support.  

Cost: Free

Speakers: 

Ofelia Zepeda

The Artists Collective–under the guidance of Nhan Ho, a second-year graduate student at University of Arizona’s School of Dance–will partner with CCP and the College of Fine Arts to present an experiential performance inspired by Wonders and Witness: Contemporary Photography from Korea.

The event has been postponed due to ongoing maintenance in the CCP Center Galleries. Please stay tuned for further updates and details.

Catch Beatlemania with John, Paul, George and Ringo at this fab sing-a-long screening of the 1964 rock ‘n’ roll musical, A Hard Day’s Night!  Sing-a-long to all the movie’s classic tunes, including “Can’t Buy Me Love,’ “I Should Have Known Better,” and “A Hard Day’s Night!” Rock out with pre-show Beatles Music Videos, and come dressed as your favorite Mop Top for our Beatles Costume Contest before the movie. You’ll love it, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Meet the Beatles! Just one month after they exploded onto the US scene with their Ed Sullivan appearance, John, Paul, George, and Ringo began working on a project that would bring their revolutionary talent to the big screen. A Hard Day’s Night, in which the bandmates play wily, exuberant versions of themselves, captured the astonishing moment when they officially became the singular, irreverent idols of their generation and changed music forever. This zany, tune-filled romp follows thirty-six hours in the lives of the Fab Four as they prepare for a big TV gig in London while looking for adventure, getting into trouble and trying to outrun hordes of their screaming fans!  Directed with raucous, anything-goes energy by Richard Lester and featuring a slew of classic pop anthems, including the title track, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “Tell Me Why,” and “If I Fell,” A Hard Day’s Night, which reconceived the movie musical and paved the way for the modern music video, is one of the most deliriously entertaining (and sing-able!) movies of all time. (Dir. by Richard Lester, 1964, UK, 87 mins., Not Rated)

Reserve tickets here through The Loft Cinema's website.

Join us on Saturday, May 06, 2023, from 5PM to 7PM for the "¡Fiesta Fotográfica: El Pueblo Celebration!" at the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center Patio & Multipurpose Room. Centerpiece to the evening is an exhibition commemorating El Pueblo's past, present, and future through photography and storytelling. Join us for a reception featuring mariachi, hors d'oeuvres, aguas, and community tabling. Welcome remarks will be given at 5:45PM. Your rsvp is kindly requested, linked here.

About the Collaboration: El Pueblo Neighborhood Center is a hub for recreational and public services, neighborly exchange and community placekeeping in Tucson’s Southside. Located at the intersection of Irvington & Sixth, it is adjacent to the Laos Transit center and the Tucson Rodeo Grounds, houses such key Tucson Chicano cultural landmarks as the Frank De La Cruz Public Library and the headquarters of US Congressman Raúl Grijalva. Wrapped in murals and memory and traversed by families and public servants, the center is now the focus of efforts by multiple stakeholders in the city and private sector for revitalization and reinvestment. 

In the Spring of 2023,  UArizona students in Public and Applied Humanities (PAH) 200 “Introduction to Applied Humanities - the El Pueblo Urban Humanities Studio,” in partnership with the Sunnyside Foundation and the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) joined these efforts by visualizing the legacy and future of the site as part of their coursework with Dr. Jacqueline Barrios. Together with teaching partners and community storytellers, they deployed an urban humanist toolkit (case-study and archival research, site-visits, spatial ethnography, interviews and photography) to bring El Pueblo’s cultural, historical and speculative imaginaries into the public eye

A selection of the images from the El Pueblo photography and storytelling project will then be exhibited within CCP's current exhibition, Sessions on Creative Photography: Hazel Larsen Archer, through August 05, 2023. 

We would like to acknowledge funding for this project from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA);  the Marshall Foundation; the UArizona Experiential Learning Design Accelerator; UArizona Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI) Faculty Seed Grant, which supported sessions with Latinx digital humanist scholar and course artist-in-resident, Dr. Leigh-Anna Hidalgo; Arts|Humanities|Resilience Grant from UArizona College of Fine Arts (CFA) Research, Innovation & Impact (RII) and the Arizona Institute for Resilience (AIR), which is providing support for our newly inducted community documentarians and artists-in-residence, Luis Gonzalez and Jessica Wolff. We want to thank community and teaching partners, collaborators and storytellers from Sunnyside Foundation; the Office of Congressman Raúl Grijalva; Nuestras Raíces Pima County Public Library (PCPL) and Frank de la Cruz-El Pueblo Public Library; Raúl Council Member Lane Santa Cruz and Ward 1; Council Member Richard Fimbres and Ward 5; Supervisor Adelita S. Grijalva - Pima County Board of Supervisors, District 5; City of Tucson Parks and Recreation, UArizona, especially the College of Humanities (COH) and the Department of Public and Applied Humanities (PAH), College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA), Center for Creative Photography (CCP), UArizona Libraries Special Collections. 

None of this would be possible without members of our communities who participated in our Community Reinvestment Days, site visits, storytelling panels, community photo-shoots, workshops, pin-ups and reviews, who took the time to help us learn and share the story of El Pueblo. 

Community Storytellers: Jese Aguilar, Netza Aguirre, Richard Barker, Michael Barton, Cassandra Becerra, Martha Diaz, Vanessa Gallego, Mona Grijalva,  Congressman Raúl Grijalva, Sharayah ‘Shay’ Jimenez, Yolanda Herrera, Nancy Johnson, Beki Quintero, Ruben Reyes, Lupita Robles, Alfonso Romero, Anna Sanchez, Councilmember Lane Santa Cruz, Melissa Salazar, Jesse Soto, Brianna Velador,

Sunnyside Foundation Staff:  CEO Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Soltero, Director of Operations, Veronica Cruz-Mercado, Education & Community Manager, Karla Toledo, Administrative Coordinator, Laura Corrales, Community Investment Fund Coordinator, Selina Barajas 

UArizona and Guest Instructors and Reviewers:  Mireya Ballesteros, Cara Buchanan, Michelle Nicole Boyer Kelley, Denisse Brito, Lisa Duncan, Federicco Fabbri, Dr. Leigh-Anna Hidalgo, Stephanie Husman, Dr. Meg Jackson Fox, Ashley Swinford, Juliana Tobar, Emily Weirich, Kenny H. Wong, and all the UArizona students and members of our communities who made this project come to life. 

(Left) “Photo of El Pueblo” is a photo of a historic snapshot of the El Pueblo patio found at Congressman Raύl Grijalva’s office, and is produced by PAH 200 student Neylan Jeffreyes for his final project about capturing the traces of time passing within El Pueblo. Photo Neylan Jeffreyes

(Right) “Future” is a photo capturing PAH 200 students at work conducting their community photo-shoot  at El Pueblo, produced by PAH 200 student Riley Swindall for her final project documenting the coming together this semester of two communities,  El Pueblo and her class. Photo by Riley Swindall.

Visit CCP for Exhibition Opening Day and enjoy the North American premiere of The Linda McCartney Retrospective, photography by her beloved teacher, Hazel Larsen Archer, an image+sound installation co-created with Arizona Arts Live, and hands-on activities.

Beginning at noon in the Forum at UA's Health Sciences Innovation Building (HSIB), Sarah Brown, Photographic Curator of the Linda McCartney Archives, will speak on Linda McCartney’s life and legacy, followed by a Q&A moderated by Dr. Rebecca Senf, Chief Curator, Center for Creative Photography. 

The day will be filled with exciting activities outdoors inspired by the Center and our exhibitions! Visitors will be invited to create their own Linda McCartney-inspired cyanotypes, exchange their favorite recipes in the “Take a recipe, leave a recipe” table, or chat with vegan advocates Gissel Guzman and Hannah Hernandez about plant-based eating. Color with CCP Collection Coloring Pages, engage with the CCP exhibitions with our scavenger hunt Bingo, and much more!

*Free first-come, first-serve tickets will be available beginning when doors open at 10am, both at CCP and the HSIB building. 75 tickets will be reserved for members; 25 tickets reserved for students with student IDs; and 300 tickets for general admission. At 11:45am, the reserved tickets will become general admission.