Storytelling and photography at the Getty Jan. 26

On January 26, noted actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith joins artists Carrie Mae Weems and Eileen Cowin for an evening of conversation and readings at the Getty Center. They will discuss Cowin’s and Weems’s works on view in the exhibition Narrative Interventions in Photography, and explore how storytelling impacts their art making.



Anna Deavere Smith is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress. She is known for her documentary-theater style, showcased in plays such as Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, in which she performs multiple roles. Smith has also appeared in numerous films and television programs. In this unique meeting of artists at the Getty, Smith urges the photographers to explore their interest in storytelling through performance.



Carrie Mae Weems's work is part of her 1995 series From Here I Saw What Happened, in which she appropriates historical photographs of African Americans and superimposes her own narrative onto the images. Weems's texts add an additional layer of interpretation to the photographs, which depict racial stereotypes, brutality, and injustice.

Eileen Cowin's 2002 series I See What You're Saying consists of large-scale diptychs in which images of books are juxtaposed with close-up details of faces; together, the pairs explore the tension between what simply exists on the page and what is viscerally understood. The work asks viewers to consider the subjectivity of storytelling, specifically the notion of lying.

Storytelling and Photography
Thursday January 26, 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Harold M. Williams Auditorium, Getty Center

Complements the exhibition Narrative Interventions in Photography, on-view through March 11, 2012



Event is free, but reservations are required. For reservations, visit www.getty.edu or call (310) 440-7300.