Photography and the Uncertainty of the Present

The third part of an ongoing speaker series which brings together practicing artists, scholars, and curators to discuss the radical potential of photography to illuminate the condition of the present, focusing on the camera's ability to represent built environments and their relationship to historical logics of accumulation.

This event will consist of a 40-minute artist's talk by Peter van Agtmael, followed by a 20-minute conversation with Tom Rankin, and then time for audience Q&A.

It will take place in the Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room (Rubenstein Library 153).

More details:
Peter van Agtmael's work largely concentrates on the United States, both at home and abroad, looking at issues of conflict, identity, power, race, and class. Overseas, he has covered the 9/11 wars and their consequences, working extensively in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East. Peter studied history at Yale and joined Magnum Photos in 2008; he became a full member in 2013. He has published three monographs: 2nd Tour I Hope I Don't Die (2009); Disco Night Sept. 11 (2014); and Buzzing at the Sill (2016). He has won the W. Eugene Smith Grant, the ICP Infinity Award for Young Photographer, as well as awards from World Press Photo, The Pulitzer Center, and The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Tom Rankin is Professor of the Practice of Art and Documentary Studies at Duke University where he directs the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts.