NINA BERMAN
“HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH CENSORSHIP? DOCUMENTING THE U.S. AUTHORITARIAN PROJECT”

Language: English

Duration: approx. 1h

In her lecture Nina Berman will speak about her life and work in the United States and reflect on how to continue a documentary practice under increasingly authoritarian conditions.

As a professor at Columbia University, where pro-Palestine demonstrations sparked an international movement and were followed by government and institutional crackdowns, Berman has been both a witness to, and directly affected by, the imposition of a punitive censorship regime that is still in formation.

Within this context, she asks how one can photograph the erosion of free speech and academic freedom, especially when censorship can be self-imposed as a means of self-preservation, or enforced through opaque bureaucratic mechanisms that remain largely invisible to the public.

As a tentative response to these questions, Berman will present The Complaint, an ongoing project based on experiences at Columbia University which includes Nina’s photographs, original texts and institutional documents that seek to historicize and narrate one crucial aspect of the current American authoritarian project – the destruction of free speech.

The lecture will be held in English.

Nina Berman is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, journalist and educator. Her work explores American politics, militarism, environmental issues and post violence trauma. She is the author of Purple Hearts – Back from Iraq, (Trolley, 2004) portraits and interviews with wounded American veterans, Homeland, (Trolley, 2008) an examination of the militarization of American life post September 11, and An autobiography of Miss Wish (Kehrer, 2017) a story told with a survivor of sexual violence which was shortlisted for both the Aperture and Arles book prizes. Additional fellowships, awards and grants include: the Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the World Press Photo Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the Aftermath Project. She started her photographic career in 1988 as an independent photographer working on assignment for the world’s major magazines including Time, Newsweek, Life, the New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, German Geo, and the Sunday Times Magazine. She covered a range of issues, from women under siege during war in Bosnia and Afghanistan, to domestic issues of criminal justice, reproductive rights, and political process. Her photography and film work has been exhibited at more than 100 international venues and is in several noted public collections including the Smithsonian and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. She has participated in and given workshops around the world for young photographers and was a member of NOOR images from 2009–2021. She is currently a professor at Columbia University and lives in her hometown of New York City.

NINA BERMAN (WEBSITE)

NINA BERMAN“HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH CENSORSHIP? DOCUMENTING THE U.S. AUTHORITARIAN PROJECT”

NINA BERMAN
“HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH CENSORSHIP? DOCUMENTING THE U.S. AUTHORITARIAN PROJECT”