Eric Gyamfi in Conversation with Lyle Ashton Harris

Magnum Foundation invites you to an evening event with photographer and Magnum Foundation grantee Eric Gyamfi, who will be joined in conversation with artist Lyle Ashton Harris to discuss Gyamfi's photographic projects and evolution into more experimental approaches to imagemaking and distribution.

Friday, November 15, 2024 | 6:45 PM - 8:30 PM ET

In-person

Doors open at 6:15 PM

Magnum Foundation | 59 East 4th St, 7W | New York, NY 10003

The conversation will cover Gyamfi's projects and evolution as a photographer, ranging from his early Magnum Foundation supported project Just Like Us (2016), which looked what it means to be queer in Ghana, as seen through the lives of Gyamfi's friends and acquaintances; to more recent experimental approaches to the making and presenting photographs, including (2018-24).

Gyamfi will be in conversation with Harris, whose oeuvre weaves together legacies of family dynamics, queer histories, and Afro-cosmopolitanism. Their discussion will focus on Ghana as a site that both artists draw from, as well as their approaches to representation, self-portraiture, and mixed media. Situated within the wider discourse of documentary photography and its limits, the two will discuss how Gyamfi's work has developed and shifted over the years, as well as the influences of mentors, artists, and communities.

Copies of will be available for purchase and signing.

Eric Gyamfi (b. 1990, Ghana) is a photographer living and working in Ghana. Eric has a B.A in Information studies with Economics from the University of Ghana (2010 to 2014) and an MFA at the Department of painting and sculpture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(2018 - 2024 ). Gyamfi was also a fellow at the Photographers’ Master Class (Khartoum, Sudan 2016 and Nairobi, Kenya 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa 2018) and participated in the Nuku Studio Photography Workshops (2016) and World Press Photo West African Master Class (2017), both in Accra. His works have featured in A Diagnosis of time; Unlearn What You Have Learned Redclay Studios 2021), Ecologies and Politics of the Living (Vienna Biennale 2021), The 11th and 12th Bamako encounters (2017/2019), Fixing Shadows: Julius and I, (FOAM 2020, Autograph 2023), the 74th Berlinale International Film Festival(2024) and others. Gyamfi's work examines the photographic medium, focusing on reprogramming its processes and materials to expand their functionality.

Lyle Ashton Harris (born 1965 in Bronx, New York) has cultivated a diverse artistic practice, ranging from photography and collage to video installation and performance art, examining the impact of race, gender and desire on the contemporary social and cultural dynamic globally through intersections of the personal and the political. Harris has been widely exhibited globally and his work is represented in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and the Tate Modern among numerous public and private collections internationally. Over three decades, Harris has been on the faculty of New York University, where he is a Professor of Art and Art Education.

Magnum Foundation is in an elevator building and has a restroom that is wheelchair accessible and gender-neutral. For access requests or questions, please contact [email protected].

Masks are currently encouraged, but not required.

Magnum Foundation events are made possible by the Henry Nias Foundation and .

Cover Image Credit: Installation view of Eric Gyamfi: Fixing Shadows – Julius and I at Autograph

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Magnum Foundation, 59 East 4th Street, New York, United States