Camera as Catalyst

Creating change through the lens of the Magnum Photographer

Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - 5:30pm

Location: Wechsler Theater, 3rd Floor Mary Graydon, American University

Join the Center for an evening with visiting photographer Peter van Agtamael, 5:30 pm November 10 at American University's School of Communication, Wechsler Theater. When not in Iraq and Afghanistan, van Agtmael photographed the war at home, following the recovery of wounded soldiers and the families of the fallen.Peter has documented the Three Gorges Dam in China, the Asian Tsunami, the AIDS epidemic in South Africa, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Positioning the camera on the frontlines of social change, this series of innovative workshops and lectures gets up close and personal with the work of the Magnum Photographer. Learn from the cutting edge, uncompromising and precedent setting work that has set the agenda for photographers worldwide for more than 50 years. As history has been made, they have been there: from Abbas’ photographs of the armed militants outside the US Embassy in Iran, during the diplomat hostage crisis, to Eli Reed’s members of the Nation of Islam standing in the ruins of the Rodney King Riots in Los Angeles, Magnum Photographers document the world around them.  This series recognizes the primary role of the camera as an agent of social change. 

Born in Washington DC, Peter graduated with a History degree from Yale. Upon graduation, van Agtmael left for China to document the effects of the Three Gorges Dam as part of the Charles P Howland fellowship.  In 2005 van Agtmael photographed the Tsunami and traveled to South Africa to chronicle the AIDS epidemic. Traveling to Iraq in 2006 he photographed the consequences of war both in Iraq and home.  In 2008 van Agtmael helped organize Battlespace, an exhibition and book of unseen work from 22 photographers covering Iraq and Afghanistan.  Agtmael became a Magnum nominee in 2008.