Nathan Lyons with Jessica McDonald: A Life in Photography

Jessica S. McDonald will speak with photographer, curator, and educator Nathan Lyons about his career and role in the expansion of American photography. As a curator, theorist, educator, artist, and advocate, Nathan Lyons has played a central role in the expansion of photography over the last five decades. After producing seminal exhibitions and publications as curator at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, in the 1960s, he founded the Visual Studies Workshop, an independent arts organization where his innovative programs trained a new generation of photographers, critics, curators, and historians. (See video.)

McDonald is Chief Curator of Photography at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, and formerly held curatorial posts at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. She is the editor of Nathan Lyons: Selected Essays, Lectures, and Interviews (UT Press, 2012), which provides the first comprehensive overview of Lyons's career as one of the most important voices in American photography. The book will be available for purchase and signing at the event.