SANTA BARBARA — The Santa Barbara Museum of Art will present the FREE SBMA Virtual Talk by Art Historian Kim Beil Focuses on Trends in Popular Photography at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28.
Live via Zoom
How-to books and photo blogs often represent the rules of photography as timeless or inherent to the medium. In fact, though, what we define as a “good picture” is constantly changing. In her new book, Good Pictures: A History of Popular Photography, Kim Beil traces 50 stylistic trends through 175 years of photographic practice. In this conversation, she discusses elements of contemporary pictures that seem unassailably good (the “best” angle for selfies, the “best” light for portraits), and shows that these judgments are actually recent developments, which overturn decades of previous advice on how to make good pictures.?
In the second half of the hour, Beil comments on pictures submitted in advance by the audience, placing family photos (1880 – 1980) in the context of photo history. To be included in the conversation, send pictures of your favorite vintage photos to communityprograms@sbma.net by 9/21.
Kim Beil teaches art history at Stanford University.
Free
Get tickets at tickets.sbma.net.