Why Landscape Now?: A Conversation with George Kimmerling and Erin Barnett
Forty years ago, Deborah Bright published her groundbreaking article “Of Mother Nature and Marlboro Men” in Exposure magazine, the journal of the Society of Photographic Education. In it she asks, “[W]hat can photographs of landscapes tell us about how we construct our sense of the world.” Although much has been written since about landscape photography and its function in an economy of pictures (and certainly many landscape photographs have since been created), her question is still relevant. In this open-ended conversation, artist George Kimmerling and art historian and curator Erin Barnett discuss what it means to photograph landscapes now and why the theoretical issues Bright raised in her essay remain critical to photography discourse.
About George Kimmerling
George Kimmerling has exhibited his work at the Cooper Hewitt, the New Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, as well as numerous galleries and nonprofit spaces in the United States and internationally. His work is also represented in collections at the New Museum, Corcoran Gallery, West Collection, and Artists Space. Kimmerling has had residencies at PS1/MoMA, the MacDowell Colony, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and has taught/lectured at the University of Chicago, Corcoran School of Art, RISD, Hunter College, Syracuse University, McMaster University, and the Brecht Forum. Kimmerling has a BA in philosophy from Stony Brook University, a BFA in photography from the Corcoran College of Art, and an MFA in photography from RISD. He also completed the Whitney Independent Study Studio Program and was a graduate fellow at the NYU American Photography Institute.
About Erin Barnett
Erin Barnett is an art historian, curator, writer, and editor. She is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts, where she teaches courses on writing and thinking critically about photography, video, and material culture. Prior to her appointment at SVA, Barnett was Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the International Center for Photography in New York from 2016 to 2020. In addition to developing ICP’s overall exhibition and collection strategies, Barnett organized exhibitions of work by historical and contemporary photographers and new-media artists including “The Lower East Side: Selections from the ICP Collection”; “James Coupe: Warriors”; “Your Mirror: Portraits from the ICP Collection” (co-curator); “RFK Funeral Train: The People's View”; “Edmund Clark: The Day the Music Died”; and “The Loving Story: Photographs by Grey Villet.” Barnett has a BA in Art History from Oberlin College and an MA in Art History from the University of Kansas, and she completed the Whitney Independent Study Curatorial Studies Program in 1999.