Talk: Leslie Wilson: Is this the America of Ebony?

Join Leslie Wilson, Academic Curator and Director of Research Programs at the Art Institute of Chicago, as she explores the complexities of South African photojournalist Ernest Cole’s documentary work in the United States.

Soon after his arrival in 1967, Cole began work on a project to document Black communities across the nation, from his base in New York to the West Coast and Southeastern United States. Throughout his travels, Cole wrestled with his expectations of America–ones powerfully shaped by his reading of magazines like Ebony, Life, and Look–and the cultural realities of his experiences. Wilson’s talk expands upon her curatorial work in the exhibition on view in Mia’s Harrison Gallery, “The True America: Photographs by Ernest Cole,” the first exhibition to present Cole’s photojournalism work from across the United States in the pivotal era of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Tickets available January 16.