The Center for Visual Culture (CVC), established in 2016, is the home of ICP’s public programs. Our programs seek to generate stimulating public dialogues between concerned photographic and visual culture communities, academics, and collaborative partners from a range of creative and community-based organizations. The goal of ICP public programs is to explore the complex challenges facing our world, increasingly informed by the dynamic impact of visual culture and media while also lifting up photographic voices within ICP’s robust community.
Through substantive public programs, including ICP Talks: A Photographer’s Lecture Series, ICP Lessons, an education based multi-day lecture series, dynamic photobook events and discussions, panels, lectures, symposia, performances, and film screenings, the CVC invites broad audiences both online and in person, to explore and to contribute new ideas and perspectives on how photography and visual culture shape our world.
Visit icp.org/events to register for current Public Programs.
All online programs provide live closed captioning. Read more about our public program attendance policies. For more information about how we’re welcoming you back safely for in person events, read our updated Visitor Information and Accessibility guidelines and policies.
Public Programs by Season
Fall 2021—ICP Talks
Fall 2021
The Lives of Images Symposium Series
Summer 2021—ICP Talks at Southampton Arts Center
Winter 2021— ICP Talks
Spring 2021—The Rules are Broken: A Year in Imagemaking
Fall 2019
Winter/Spring 2019
Fall 2018
Summer 2018
Winter/Spring 2018
Fall 2017
Summer 2017
Winter/Spring 2017
Fall 2016
Archival Video Access
When recorded, public programs are available to the public through the program event page. If a video is available, it will be linked at the top of the individual event page for that program. Recordings of public programs can be found through exploring the ‘Public Programs by Season’ lists or by searching within ICP.org’s search engine by selecting the ‘Video’ filter type.
Recent Highlights
But Still, It Turns and the Photobook
March 30, 2021
Organized as part of The Rules are Broken: A Year in Imagemaking weeklong symposium and In celebration of the ICP exhibition But Still, It Turns: Recent Photography from the World, listen to the online talk with writer, Rebecca Bengal, and photographers Emanuele Brutti and Piergiorgio Casotti, Gregory Halpern, and Vanessa Winship.
Optics: Health, Crisis, and Care
April 7, 2020
Optics series host Reya Sehgal, chats with curator Erin Barnett and scholar and curator of the 2019 Museum of the City of New York exhibition Germ City: Microbes and the Metropolis Dr. Rebecca Jacobs, for this special virtual conversation exploring the photographs of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways photographs build understanding, inform policy, and themselves, go viral.
Reimagining the Image: Shahidul Alam
April 4, 2019
In conjunction with ICP’s 2019 Infinity Awards, an evening with Special Presentation Award winner Shahidul Alam as he shares his journey as a Bangladeshi photographer, writer, and human rights activist and Time magazine’s 2018 Person of the Year.
Vision and Technology: Towards a More Just Future (Symposium)
May 14, 2018
Organized in collaboration with Eyebeam, this daylong symposium addresses the implications of visuality, representation, and privacy in the age of surveillance and big data.
Eugene Richards: on The Run-On of Time
September 28, 2018
Eugene Richards discusses the themes, stories, and images that have shaped his forty-five year career and his ICP Museum retrospective, Eugene Richards: The Run-On of Time. Richards is joined in conversation by Nelson-Atkins Museum curator April Watson and ICP’s Susan Carlson.
All Used Up: Dismantling the Gaze x Queering the Collection
October 17, 2018
A night of screenings, readings, and performances featuring the appropriation practices of William E. Jones, Allison Parrish, and Christopher Clary, with special guest shawné michaelain holloway, followed by a panel discussion with moderator Nayland Blake.
Optics: Visual Culture and Electoral Politics
November 6, 2018
From campaign posters and graphic identities to politicians’ self-styled photographs and social media presences, this session of Optics: A New Way of Seeing Contemporary Culture deconstructs the increasingly complex visual culture of politics.
Special Thanks
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [ARPML-250551-OMLS-22].
Additional support for public programs has been provided by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
