Examine the formative role that libraries, museums, and stock agencies have played in defining how we all interact with pictures.

Registration for this event has sold out. A limited number of standby tickets may be available on the day of the event.

Long before Instagram, Facebook, Open AI, or any other tech company was dominating today’s kaleidoscopic visual culture, libraries, museums, and stock agencies were already shaping how we organize and share photos. In Picture-Work, Diana Kamin spotlights three institutions that helped redefine the public’s understanding of what the photographic image is, while building vast collections with universalizing ambitions: The New York Public Library, The Museum of Modern Art, and the stock agency H. Armstrong Roberts Inc.

Diana Kamin is joined in conversation by artists Eric Timothy Carlson and Calista Donohoe as they consider how the public interfaces with these image collections have impacted contemporary image culture, including concepts of authorship, art, property, and value, as well as logics of indexing, tagging, and hyperlinking.

To join | Please register for an In-Person Ticket. Doors will open around 1:30 PM. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Diana Kamin, an advanced lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University, holds a PhD in media, culture, and communication from New York University. Her research explores the circulation of photography and large-scale image collections in historical and contemporary contexts. Her writing can be found in Journal of Visual Culture, Information & Culture, and Artforum.com, among others, and her first book Picture-Work: How Libraries, Museums, and Stock Agencies Launched a New Image Economy (2023) was recently published with MIT Press.

Calista Donohoe is a library page for The New York Public Library Picture Collection. Set to graduate from Pratt Institute in May with an MSLIS and an advanced certificate in archives, Calista combines her academic pursuits with a lifelong passion for creating and appreciating art. With a background in English and linguistics, she explores the nuanced differences between written, spoken, and visual information. Her professional pursuits encompass visual resources, visual literacy, critical cataloging, and provenance research, reflecting her interest in the dynamic intersection of information, artistry, and the construction of meaning.

Eric Timothy Carlson (b. 1984) is a Brooklyn based interdisciplinary artist. With a distinctive style characterized by complex layering of material and an astute use of semiotics, Carlson has established himself as a prolific creator of drawings, collages, paintings, publications, installations, and moving image works. Carlson’s work has been presented by Pioneer Works, Printed Matter, The Walker Art Center, Mass MoCA, Fisher Parrish Gallery, and the Typojanchi International Typography Biennial in Seoul, South Korea. Carlson’s art direction has been nominated for two Grammy Awards as well as the Beazley Designs of the Year award at The Design Museum, London.

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ACCESSIBILITY

In-Person | You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template. This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

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Courtesy Diana Kamin
Courtesy Calista Donohoe
Eric Timothy Carlson © Pete Deevakul