The Classroom
On second floor of 950 S. Raymond Ave
The Architecture of Fire(works): Between Spectacle and Catastrophe, with Kevin Cooley and Aline Smithson
Fire has long been both a subject and a force in Kevin Cooley’s work—something he has observed, documented, and even orchestrated. But when he lost his home and studio in the Eaton Fire, it ceased to be just an artistic fascination and became an inescapable reality. In this talk, Cooley shares the journey that led him to publish The Wizard of Awe, starting with meeting a fireworks maker named Ken Miller. Miller’s life was defined by fire in ways both mesmerizing and tragic. Now, standing in the aftermath of the fire that changed his own life, Cooley confronts these themes from a new perspective. What does it mean to document destruction when you yourself are affected? How does an artist engage with disaster without becoming consumed by it? Cooley will discuss the unintended consequences of his work with Miller, the burden of witnessing, and the unexpected ways in which photography, storytelling, and personal loss intersect. Cooley will be joined in conversation with Aline Smithson, an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator, and editor based in Los Angeles, California. In 2007, Smithson founded LENSCRATCH, a photography journal that celebrates a different contemporary photographer each day. Presented by The Eriskay Collection.
Ground Sea: Examining depression, memory, and loss through an artist book, with Kanthy Peng, Michael Guo, and Muxi Gao
Ground Sea is Kanthy Peng's debut artist book. Through it, she portrays the depressed body as a receptor and amplifier for signals from the future, questioning whether it is the individual—paralyzed by an impending catastrophe—that requires treatment, or if it is society—numbed by relentless progress—that needs awakening. This talk will be hosted by Michael Guo from te editions, with artist Kanthy Peng and designer Muxi Gao from Company Per Form. They will discuss the creative process and design principles behind Ground Sea, exploring the socio-political conditions that shaped the project and examining how the design, layout, and material choices reflect and reinforce its conceptual framework. Presented by te editions.
The Power of Local Publishing: An experiment on ethical publishing within a local context, with Lucas Birk
Lukas Birk (Fraglich Publishing/Myanmar Photo Archive) offers insights into the challenges and opportunities of ethical local publishing, using the Myanmar Photo Archive as a case study. This talk highlights both his successes and failures in over a decade of experience, emphasizing the importance of empowering local communities through accessible publications and rethinking global publishing practices. The publishing industry remains dominated by a Western-centric power structure in which books produced in the USA or Europe about less economically developed countries rarely make their way to the latter. In fact, more historical information about many less economically developed countries can be found in libraries in New York or London than in local universities. Publishers have a responsibility to address this imbalance and Birk offers an opportunity to discuss how. Presented by Fraglich Publishing/Myanmar Photo Archive.
Photography from Yemen, with Ibi Ibrahim
Ibi Ibrahim presents Photography from Yemen, the debut publication of Makan Press. This photography book is the first survey of contemporary Yemeni photography, featuring fourteen artists from Yemen and its diaspora. Co-edited by Ibi Ibrahim and Lizzy Vartanian, the book not only includes a presentation of each artist's work, but also writing about their practice in their own words. Through reflections on his fifteen-year career as a visual artist, publishing process, and upcoming projects, Ibrahim highlights the importance of giving Yemeni photographers a platform to share their work and tell their stories. Presented by Makan Press.
Blue Sun with Genesis Báez, Jenny Calivas, and Lacey Lennon
Genesis Báez is joined by Jenny Calivas and Lacey Lennon for a conversation celebrating the release of Blue Sun, Báez's debut monograph. Spanning a decade of photographic work, Blue Sun offers a glimmering examination of Puerto Rican matriarchal kinship and diaspora through studied images of the elemental and generational. Using Blue Sun as a departure point, these artists will discuss cross-practice themes of invocation, place-making, environment, photographic process, and performance. Presented by Capricious.
Las Tareas de Mercedes, by Ana Victoria Jiménez, with Andrea García
Ana Victoria Jiménez’s work is key to the visual history of feminism in Mexico. Her archive documents the movement from the 1970s to the 1990s, including Cuaderno de Tareas, originally conceived as a planner to track the hours women spent on domestic labor. In this project, Jiménez photographed her colleague, Mercedes Maya, performing household tasks. Though some images appeared in exhibitions, many remained unpublished—until now. Las Tareas de Mercedes is a photobook of this work that makes visible the unpaid labor that sustains daily life. Andrea García will discuss the book’s significance, its creation process, and the collective effort behind it in this talk. Presented by Miau Ediciones.
1 Million Images in a Book? Publishing Ed Ruscha's Streets of Los Angeles Archive at Getty
Zanna Gilbert, Emily Pugh and Isabel Wade present a preview of the forthcoming Getty publication Ed Ruscha’s Streets of Los Angeles: Artist, Image, Archive, City, which was created using Getty’s digital publishing tool Quire and will be released in both print and digital formats in July 2025. Ruscha's Streets of Los Angeles project began with Every Building on the Sunset Strip and continues into 2025 comprising an extensive artistic record of L.A., with over 900,000 images of major thoroughfares. Ruscha’s photographs constitute an unparalleled visual chronicle of both iconic and everyday sites in L.A., including popular music venues, neighborhood restaurants, and billboards promoting Hollywood’s latest blockbusters.