Re-Present: Photographic Practice
A Open Call for Faculty and Students in the CSCU System
Thursday, October 17, 2024
9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Torp Theater
Davidson
Morning 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
CLASS Dean Welcome, Opening Remarks, Panel Discussion, Q&As
Afternoon 1:30 – 4:00 pm
CSCU Faculty & Student Presentations
Please submit papers to Jeanne Criscola by October 5.
Photography, simply put, is a mirror of a moment.
Re-Present traces the timeline from early photographic images captured by such different artifacts and devices as chemically sensitive surfaces, the camera obscura, photography, cinema, video, and digital systems, to examine the recording of biological systems, various scientific applications, e.g., the Hubble and James Webb Space telescopes, tasked to explore and transmit deep space data, visual, spectral, and beyond.
Re-Present is a series of integrated events constituting a continuing symposium that will look at Photography through a wide and narrow lens. This overall multi-part symposium project addresses the technologies birthed in the 1800s that have opened our vision of ourselves and of the universe, and the contemporary ways we develop, disseminate and share what we have captured.
Re-Present is configured as a three-part forum taking place over multiple years. The first iteration of Re-Present is “Photographic Practice” a day-long symposium that includes a panel discussion by experts in a variety of aesthetic and commercial fields that utilize photographic technologies.
Participants will share and present aspects of the significance of the image in their praxis. The symposium is open to students, faculty, and members of the CSCU system and to the general public. The symposium proceedings will be accessible in person and virtual.
Overview
In 1934, Walter Benjamin questioned the role of photography in technology, art, and society. In 2024, as Artificial Intelligence has become an almost ubiquitous component of technical reproduction, Re-Present looks at the many ways in which photography has evolved: Photography extends the human body through the artificial vision of the “apparatus” to engage the maker and the viewer in varying ways from passive appreciation, documentation of political events, and a celebration of social connections. Photography and subsequent image-technologies profoundly contribute to contemporary knowledge-formations, recasting what it is to see, to know, and to be.
The moderators and panelists of this symposium highlight the different ways that the image interacts with one’s practice. Considering the power and influence of the image to “tell the truth,” each capture is a means to an end. In virtually all aspects of daily life, the visual is the preferred mode of discovery in the social sciences, life sciences, geosciences, forensics, business, communication, personal interaction, and much more. And now artificial and augmented realities are merging with photography making this series of Symposiums a timely event.
Images are ubiquitous and their senses and meanings can be found in virtually all fields, disciplines, and practices. Why and how images are captured, edited, manipulated, and curated form an intrinsic component in contemporary teaching and curriculum.
As more people use a personal imaging device, cell phone camera, et al. the situations and events that shape our lives come—intermittently—into focus to tell stories of today and the future.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Re-Present: Photographic Practice traverses trans-disciplinary dialogue to embrace an array of practices that move between theoretical reflection on the nature of photography and case studies of its practice from research-based to experience-based perspectives. The annual Re-Present series of forums offer an interdisciplinary colloquium to explore photography in professional and disciplinary terms.
2024 Themes We invite CSCU faculty and students in all disciplines to interpret these themes and present a 10-minute talk. Please email Jeanne Criscola (jcriscola@ccsu.edu) with your intention to submit a presentation, the presentation title, and the names of participants no later than October 1st.
What is an Image? | Photography as Interface | Photography as Documentation | The Technical Image | Photography as Visual Space | Photography as Data Space | Photography as Culture | Photography as Political Representation
Disciplines & Keywords Graphic Design, Photography, Communication, Journalism, AI, Philosophy, Life Sciences, Geosciences, Material Culture, Astronomy, Forensics, Law Enforcement, Industrial, Commercial, Art, Tourism, Anthropology.
above: © Suzanne Anker, Nonbinary
Agenda
9:30 – 10:00 am Meet and greet with coffee, tea, and water
10:00 – 10:15 am Welcome: CLASS Dean Andreas Mueller
10:15 – 10:45 am Opening remarks by Robert Lisak with a dedication to John T. Hill, author and designer of 21 books on Walker Evans, Norman Ives, and one underway on Herbert Matter, among others. Hill, a graphic designer, photographer, and author, has taught both graphic design and photography at Yale School of Art. Hill co-founded Yale School of Art’s first Department of Photography and was its first director of Graduate Studies in the Yale School of Art. Hill and our distinguished panelists each have a strong connection to Yale and New Haven and its significant contribution to the theories, fields, and practices of Photography and Graphic Design.
10:45 – 11:00 pm BREAK
11:00 – 12:30 noon Introduction of panelists and reels as a back drop to the panel discussion ending with a Q & A session
12:30 – 1:30 pm Lunch (on your own)
1:30 – 2:15 pm Presentations by CSCU faculty and students on Re-Present: Photographic Practice themes (10 minutes each)
2:15 – 2:30 pm BREAK
2:30 – 3:45 pm Presentations by CSCU faculty and students on Re-Present: Photographic Practice themes (10 minutes each)
3:45 – 4:00 pm Closing remarks, coffee, tea, water, and refreshments
Moderators
Dr. Thomas Zummer An internationally acclaimed independent scholar, writer, artist, and curator. Professor of Information Design, CCSU.
Leslie Thornton American avant-garde filmmaker and artist.
Panelists
Suzanne Anker A visual artist and theorist working at the intersection of art and the biological sciences. Suzanne is currently Chair of the SVA’s Department of Fine Arts where she founded the Bio Art Laboratory in 2011.
Linda Lindroth’s singular enduring passion is photography. Since receiving a Kodak Brownie camera when she was 7 years old, Lindroth has taken pictures. Not just taken but made, installed, considered. Her photographic work includes everything from Polaroid SX-70 and 20x24 formats to theatrical and ballet stage sets, video, installation, series, and mixed media. Her works are held in the permanent collections of 14 international museums including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the WestLicht Museum in Vienna, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Princeton University Art Museum, and the Newark Museum of Art in NJ.
Robert Lisak first studied photography as an undergraduate at Harvard University. He went on to receive an MFA in photography from the Yale School of Art. He printed for the Walker Evans estate for 12 years in association with John T. Hill. He taught photography at Sacred Heart University for twenty years, where he designed and implemented courses in digital photography. He has been a guest lecturer and critic at several other universities. Lisak is a past board member and current member of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers. In 2023, Robert, along with co-author David Ottenstein, published Capitol America: A Photographic Portrait of the Fifty State Capitols. Robert has exhibited his work regularly throughout Connecticut and elsewhere and has been a regular participant in New Haven’s Citywide Open Studios. Lisak’s photographs are held in several private collections.
Hugo Fernandez Born in Miami, Florida, Fernandez was raised in Dade County and the northeastern United States. Studying photography at Miami Dade Community College, he received an AS in Communications and went on to earn a BFA in Photography at Florida International University. After traveling to Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, he entered the Yale School of Art, earning an MFA in Photography. Fernandez has exhibited Hemingway House panoramas in New York City and in South Florida, at the Florida International University North Campus Library. He has published in the New York Times and “An-My Lê, Between Two Rivers” by the Museum of Modern Art. Currently, Fernandez is a Professor at LaGuardia Community College teaching courses in photography.
David Margolis With a career spanning four decades, Margolis has made a name for himself as a leading photographer in the fields of aerial and architectural photography. Margolis is the owner of Skyviews Survey, a photography firm known for its high-quality imagery. His impressive client list includes notable names like Cesar Pelli, Davis Partners, and CB Richard Ellis, and his work has graced the pages of top-tier publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Architectural Digest.
Rachel Leonard Former Fashion Director for Brides Magazine, Condé Nast. Leonard’s career spanned three decades of editing bridal fashion, covering markets in the US and Europe, and styling photoshoots. Rachel worked on the creative editorial side of the magazine with different crews consisting of photographers and hair and make-up specialists. The locations she selected ranged from ateliers to studios to historic homes, and gardens to other worldly and exotic locations all staged to modernize and romanticize the fashion of the bride. During her career at Brides, Leonard witnessed the transformation from transparency and negative film to digital photography and video. She is a now the co-founder and Editorial Director of The Bridal Council.
FACULTY ORGANIZERS
Jeanne Criscola is an Associate Professor of Graphic/Information Design at Central Connecticut State University. Re-Present is the brainchild of Criscola inspired by the photographers and designers she has the privilege to work with through Criscola Design, an award-winning studio focused on social justice and arts and culture projects. Her work spans decades of publication design created for Soros’ Open Society Foundations Network with one in MoMA’s Franklin Furnace Artists’ Book Collection. Criscola’s design praxis includes objects and experiences, curatorial and exhibition design, and cultural production multiples for authors, artists, and organizations. Her imprint, OctoberWorks.com, is a publishing/think-tank/research initiative focused on digital print technologies to foster experimentation with the multiple using emerging technologies on paper, fabric, and other materials. Her drawings, moving images, installations, generative art, performances, and books have been exhibited in international venues. As a designer and educator, Criscola brings her interests, research, and experimentation into the classroom to instigate students to think beyond the forms and conventions of today’s information.
Wujun Wang is a Professor of Graphic/Information Design at Central Connecticut State University. Wang holds a MFA in Graphic Design from Iowa State University. He specializes in Graphic Design, 3D, and emerging creative technology including Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality.
Peggy Bloomer is an Assistant Professor of Graphic/Information Design at Central Connecticut State University. Dr. Bloomer is developing two courses that deal with the various ways image, design, traditional storytelling, and data can qualitatively and quantitatively be used effectively to understand and elicit social change. She has recently presented to several conferences on the role of AI in the Design Curriculum and design workflow and teaches “Digital Storytelling” and other core design classes.
Nan Hu is an Assistant Professor of Graphic/Information Design at Central Connecticut State University, specializing in Graphic Design, UI/UX, and emerging creative technology. Hu has taught a range of design courses at CCSU and is actively involved in curriculum development, including establishing a UX certificate program. Hu’s research centers on enhancing user experiences, integrating AR into design education, and exploring AI-enhanced design practices. Hu is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the University College Designers Association (UCDA).
CONSULTANT
Dr. Karen Ritzenhoff is a Professor of Communication at Central Connecticut State University. She is also affiliated with the honors program, the minors in Cinema Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her most recent co-edited two-volume anthology on “Contemporary Asian Popular Culture” (Palgrave, 2025) is a product of a hybrid international conference on “Squid Game and Beyond” that took place at Central in April 2023. The conference chairwoman was Dr. Yeojin “Julie” Kim, Department of Communication. She is also involved in co-editing an anthology on “Barbenheimer” with Drs. Carolyn Jacobs and Anna Young (Communication).