Reframing the Collection

Using copies of these public-domain images, participants explore the invention of photography and the contexts in which these images were made, asking whose stories are represented, whose are absent, and how these choices shape our understanding of the past. Through conversation and examples of contemporary artists who reimagine historical photographs, participants consider how altering existing images can become a powerful form of connection, reclamation, and storytelling. Working with printed reproductions of the CMA’s photographs, they are encouraged to cut, paste, erase, add, and annotate, reframing the stories these images tell.