Mining the Archive with Janna Ireland (Webinar)

About

In this webinar, Los Angeles-based artist Janna Ireland will discuss ways that contemporary artists are reinterpreting personal and institutional archives in their work. Drawing on her own practice and the work of other artists, Ireland will examine how historical documents, family records, institutional collections, and found materials can be mined, reinterpreted, and transformed into new visual narratives.

Participants will gain insight into the conceptual and practical strategies artists use to engage with archival materials—whether to interrogate history, reclaim forgotten stories, or build entirely new frameworks of meaning. Through visual examples and discussion, the session will highlight how archives not only preserve the past, but also offer powerful tools for innovation, critique, and personal expression.

The 90-minute webinar will include a Q&A session where attendees can engage directly with Janna about their own ideas, questions, or projects related to archival practice.

Janna Ireland (she/her/hers) lives in Los Angeles, where she is an assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Occidental College. Her photographic work is primarily concerned with the themes of family, home, and the expression of Black identity in American culture. In 2016, she began photographing structures designed by legendary Black architect Paul R. Williams. A collection of 250 of these photographs was published in a monograph entitled Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer’s View, in 2020. In 2021, Ireland was awarded a Peter E. Pool Research Fellowship by the Nevada Museum of Art to photograph Williams’ work in Nevada. Ireland is the recipient of the 2023 Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Art Prize. Her mid-career survey, Janna Ireland: True Story Index, will be on view at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara through June 2, 2024.

A broad selection of Ireland’s work was included in the exhibition “Family Album: Dannielle Bowman, Janna Ireland and Contemporary Works from LACMA” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Charles White Elementary School Gallery. Ireland’s photographs are held in the permanent collections of institutions including LACMA, SFMOMA, the Nevada Museum of Art, the California African American Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. Her work has been the subject of articles in publications including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times, Harvard Design Magazine, and Aperture. She holds an MFA from the UCLA Department of Art and a BFA from the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU.

Details

• One Session
• Dates: Saturday, December 6, 10 am – 11:30 am PST
• Skill/Experience Level: Open to all levels
• Tuition: $55 Non-Members; $45 Members. Become a Member Today and Save!
• Location: Online

This class is part of our Saturday webinar series. These 90-minute presentations, taught by leading professionals in the field, are designed to be informative and educational. A wide range of topics will be explored. Each webinar will end with a Q&A from the audience.

A details email complete with the Zoom link will be sent to the attendees prior to the start date. If you have additional questions please email info@lacphoto.org.

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