Aftermath considers photography’s role in documenting and commemorating tragic events, including conflicts, natural disasters, and the devastation wrought by modern technology. Disasters often affect particular geographic locations at particular moments. However, photographs have the ability to produce imagined communities of spectators across space and time and play a key role in shaping collective memories of such catastrophic events. Join Sean Kramer, Curatorial Intern in the Department of Photography at UMMA, for a discussion of these complex issues in relation to photographs by Felice Beato, Timothy O’Sullivan, Margaret Bourke-White, and Sally Mann, among others.
In Conversation: Media, Memory, and Disaster in Aftermath: Landscapes of Devastation
Lead support for Aftermath: Landscapes of Devastation is provided by the Herbert W. and Susan L. Johe Endowment. Additional generous support is provided by the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability and Department of Screen Arts and Cultures.