Renée Mussai, archive project manager for Autograph ABP in London, will give a lecture at Light Work tomorrow night, March 2, at 6:30pm. Mussai will discuss developing a collection that represents artists of diverse backgrounds for Autograph ABP, as well as the right to representation.

Within the framework of the Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography at Autograph ABP, this talk will present the organization’s twenty-year history in context and critically explore issues around diversity, cultural identity, and representation in photographic practice in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As an online digital image bank and research resource, the Archive highlights a missing chapter in the cultural history of photography: Launching in 2011, its dedicated public program of education, outreach, and participatory photography projects will transform the collection into a continuously growing, living archive.

Mussai has been involved with Autograph ABP since 2001, where she currently oversees the establishment of the Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography. In addition to curating the archive collection, recent curatorial projects include solo exhibitions of Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s work; Ever Young: James Barnor, Street and Studio Photography from Ghana and the UK; as well as a forthcoming retrospective at Autograph ABP in the fall of 2010. Twice recipient of the Sofie and Emanuel Fohn Fellowship, she is based in London where she regularly lectures on photographic history and cultural identity.

Autograph ABP is an international photographic arts organization that addresses issues of cultural identity and human rights. It develops, exhibits, and publishes the work of photographers from culturally diverse backgrounds and advocates for their inclusion in all areas of exhibition, publishing, education, and commerce in the visual arts.

Light Work and Autograph ABP co-sponsor a residency every year here in Syracuse. Past Autograph ABP Artists-in-Residence have included Eileen Perrier, Admas Habteslasie, and Rik Pinkcombe.

Image, right: James Barnor, Eva, London 1960s. © James Barnor/Courtesy Autograph ABP

Renée Mussai Lecture and Reception—Autograph ABP: The Missing Chapter
March 2, 2010 at 6:30pm
Light Work

Eric Etheridge and Glen Lewis

Light Work board member Glen Lewis was instrumental in bringing to Syracuse Eric Etheridge’s “Breach of Peace,” an exhibit based on his book of the same name.

Published in 2008, Breach of Peace juxtaposes mug shots of the 1961 Freedom Riders with contemporary images and excerpts of interviews. The Freedom Riders were American men and women, black and white, who traveled by bus to the South to protest the segregation of buses and bus stations that was then illegal but still being enforced.

“Breach of Peace” is at ArtRage Gallery until February 27.

The Winter 2010 issue of BlackFlash magazine, entitled Family Matters, features an image by Doug DuBois on its cover. Inside, DuBois and Richard Hines talk about mixing art with family. Their conversation is also online here.

Doug DuBois has photographed his family for over twenty-five years, following the seasons of happy and sorrowful moments. His book …all the days and nights, which was published by aperture in 2009, features this and sixty-one other images in the series. photo-eye cited ...all the days and nights as one of the best books of 2009.

Light Work offers signed copies of . . . all the days and nights in our online store for $45. For $15 more, you can get a signed . . . all the days and nights plus a year’s subscription to the award-winning Contact Sheet (five issues, including The Light Work Annual). Also available is a signed, limited edition print by DuBois for $275.

Your purchases go directly into supporting our programming for emerging and under-recognized artists.

Image: Spencer with His Violin, Ithaca, NY, 2008.