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What are the secrets we keep, and the stories we tell, through photographs? How did a photograph described in words but never published become one of the field’s most influential images?

Roland Barthes’ famous Winter Garden photograph – an unpublished snapshot of his mother as a child – shaped his inquiry into the nature of photography in his book Camera Lucida (1980)In anticipation of the 40th anniversary of the text this year, artist Odette England invited over 200 photography-based artists, writers, critics, curators, and historians from around the world to contribute an image or text that reflects on the Winter Garden photograph – one of the world’s most famous unseen images – and its legacy, resulting in the remarkable book and exhibition project Keeper of the Hearth: Picturing Roland Barthes’ Unseen Photograph.

Alongside the exhibition at the Houston Center for Photography (September 10, 2020 – January 10, 2021), this unique online panel discussion will feature four acclaimed photographers: Barbara Bosworth, Binh Dahn, Eric Gottesman, and Northeastern CAMD’s Assistant Teaching Professor of Photography Dana Mueller. Together with Odette, the artists will share secrets and personal reflections about their images, and those of others featured in Keeper of the Hearth. The panel will be moderated by Dalia Habib Linssen, photography scholar and Head of Academic Engagement at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Free and open to the public. Registration is required and will be open until 5pm on Wednesday, October 7.

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