Origins
1839 - 1900Instrumental
Democracy
1839 - 2020
We the People
1900 - 1950Andy Everson, citizen of the K’Omoks Nation, holds an image of his grandmother who played Princess Naida in Edward S. Curtis’s film, “In the Land of the Headhunters.” CIPX Seattle Art Museum, 2016 from the series Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX)
Democracy
OngoingJustice for All
1950-2000Digital Democracy
2000 - 2022
Photography and
Civic Engagement
Coming Soon
Kim Beil, Ph.D., is an art historian who teaches at Stanford University. Her book, Good Pictures: A History of Popular Photography (Stanford University Press, 2020) tracks 50 stylistic trends in the medium since the 19th century. Much of her research was drawn from vintage how-to manuals. Beil has also written about photography and climate change for The Atlantic, on screenshots for The Believer, Google streetview for Cabinet, and most recently, for The New York Times, about hiking 50 miles to track down a little-known Ansel Adams photograph in the High Sierra. She also writes about contemporary art and artists for Artforum, Art in America, BOMB, and Photograph magazines.
Sign Up For Updates
Subscribe now and get the latest updates as we examine photography and lens-based media through interviews, lectures, and critical essays.
The programs include free and open-to-the-public programs and content in 2022-2024. Subscribe and stay tuned for more content as we continue to unfold this discussion series.
View and download CENTER’s 2024, 2023, and 2022 featuring images and segments from The Democratic Lens.
The Democratic Lens lecture series will include six sections, each with a corresponding humanities theme, historical era, and selection of contributing scholars. In alignment with NEH Special Initiative’s “A More Perfect Union” theme, scholars will present photographs that connect audiences to the diverse cultures, landscapes, histories, and individuals who collectively shaped the nation. The Democratic Lens will prioritize underrepresented histories to emphasize the diversity of the citizenry. We will present accounts that illustrate the challenges our country has endured and the stories of how Americans have worked together to overcome them.