Program Descriptions
PHOTO SOUP 1: Inaugural Meeting
October 21–23, 2022
Streamway Foundation, Rockingham, Vermont
In Photo Soup’s inaugural iteration, six invitees gathered at a repurposed sugarhouse in Rockingham, Vermont, for three days of conversation about photography. The meeting was made up of critical thinkers representing the worlds of photographic curating, publishing, art making, archives, academia, and commerce. They discussed recent systemic changes in the cultures and infrastructures of photography, considered in the context of each participant’s personal experiences in the field.
“How could a photograph be transcendent, the way Fra Angelico’s frescos are? Emmet Gowin’s work gave me a clue.”
—Joshua Chuang, at Photo Soup 1
PHOTO SOUP 2: Enterprise
October 26–29, 2023
Streamway Foundation, Rockingham, Vermont
The keyword for Photo Soup’s second meeting was broad and optimistic: “Enterprise.” The participants, critical thinkers from across the photo world, considered forward-moving trends and ideas in photography, drawing from their own experiences as professionals in the field. They offered cues for photographers and other image makers hoping to survive—or even thrive—in a world of ever-evolving technologies and modes of dissemination.
“I will never forget the moment when I encountered Harry Callahan’s Grasses in Snow, Detroit, from 1943. I thought that I was looking not at a photograph, but at a sheet of music.”
—María Martínez-Cañas, at Photo Soup 2
PHOTO SOUP 3: Education
October 17–20, 2024
Streamway Foundation, Rockingham, Vermont
Book forthcoming
Photo Soup’s third roundtable looked at the state of photographic education in the United States. This year’s participants, all practicing photographers and teachers, work in settings that range from a public high school for the arts, to BFA and MFA programs to adult workshops and museums. Among the topics discussed are the dilemma of balancing practice and pedagogy, the demise and resurrection of the darkroom, and how the MFA no longer guarantees a teaching position. The group examined the evolving roles of photography in education, shifts in learning structures over the past 50 years, and how these changes shape the experiences of teachers and learners.
“The best way to disappoint me as a teacher is to not have anything. It’s not about, is what you have good or bad. It’s are you on to something?”
—Tom Rankin, at Photo Soup 3