Deborah Martin Kao, Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography, Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, will place Shahn’s photographs documenting the Artists’ Union protests and New York prisons in the context of his involvement in the radical artists’ movement and contemporary debates about the social use of public art.

This three-day conference presents a broad spectrum of vantage points on documentary photography and photojournalism, both current and historical.

Laura Katzman, Assistant Professor of Art History and Director of Museum Studies, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, will focus on the New York neighborhoods where Shahn photographed during the 1930s, highlighting the ways he moved through the city with his small camera to document Manhattan’s diverse populations and to make studies for future work in other media.

This two-day conference offers contemporary perspectives on issues that were close to Ben Shahn’s heart—labor conditions and organization in the cultural sphere.

Max Kozloff, author, critic, curator, and photographer, will examine Shahn's images alongside works by other photographers documenting New York street life.

A panel discussion of the cultural and political terrain that provided the context for the work of Ben Shahn and his contemporaries in the 1930s.

Cosponsored by the Grey Art Gallery; the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life, New York University; the Lower East Side Conservancy; and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

In this three-part series of gallery talks, the curators will lead visitors through the exhibition, each focusing on a different aspect of Ben Shahn’s art and its era.