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“Hard Times are Fighting Times:” A Lecture Performance by Alice Proujansky

This is a free event. Reserving a free ticket in advance is required.

Photographer Alice Proujansky presents a lecture performance adapted from her book Hard Times are Fighting Times (Gnomic Book, 2023) followed by a conversation with Sara Ickow, Senior Manager, Exhibitions and Collections at ICP and an audience Q&A.

About the Book

Most families don’t have their parents’ FBI files in dusty boxes. Alice Proujansky does. Hard Times are Fighting Times describes the legacy of Proujansky’s parents’ participation in radical leftist groups like Weatherman, the Native American Solidarity Committee, and Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, that sought to overthrow imperialism and capitalism through organizing and revolution. Proujansky photographed her parents’ propaganda archive, surveillance records, family snapshots and current lives, describing their activism, and subsequent turn toward family life, from an intimate distance.

You can find Alice Proujansky: Hard Times are Fighting Times (Gnomic Books, $42.00) in ICP’s shop.

About the Speakers

Alice Proujansky is a photographer and quilter looking at family labor: birth, work, motherhood and identity. Her book, Hard Times are Fighting Times (Gnomic Book, 2023), uses archival and documentary photography to examine the legacy of radical activism in her family. Her photographs of culturally-responsive birth work have been published extensively.

Alice’s work has been published by Aperture, The Guardian, The New Republic, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Photo District News, The Intercept, The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review and others. She has received support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, International Women’s Media Fund, Magnum Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Peleh Fund, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Women Photograph. Her work has been exhibited at the Canadian Center for Architecture, Museum of the City of New York, Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York University, Photoville and United Photo Industries. Alice has led workshops for Aperture, the Bass Museum, Fotografiska, the Magnum Foundation and Working Assumptions. She was the lead curriculum writer for Aperture On Sight, a photography and visual literacy curriculum, and her first book, Go Photo! An Activity Book for Kids was published by Aperture in 2016. A member of Women Photograph, Alice grew up in Greenfield, MA. She graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Sara Ickow is the Senior Manager of Exhibitions and Collections at the International Center of Photography, where she been a curator of exhibitions including ICP at 50: From the Collection, 1845–2021, Gillian Laub: Family Matters and Between Friends: From the ICP Collection. She is also Managing Director of Women Photograph and editor of the book Women Photograph: What We See (White Lion Publishing, 2023)​. Previously, she worked as a curatorial assistant and collections manager with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. She holds an MA in art history from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts.











When: Tue., Mar. 5, 2024 at 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm
Where: International Center of Photography (ICP)
79 Essex St.
212-857-0000
Price: Free
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This is a free event. Reserving a free ticket in advance is required.

Photographer Alice Proujansky presents a lecture performance adapted from her book Hard Times are Fighting Times (Gnomic Book, 2023) followed by a conversation with Sara Ickow, Senior Manager, Exhibitions and Collections at ICP and an audience Q&A.

About the Book

Most families don’t have their parents’ FBI files in dusty boxes. Alice Proujansky does. Hard Times are Fighting Times describes the legacy of Proujansky’s parents’ participation in radical leftist groups like Weatherman, the Native American Solidarity Committee, and Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, that sought to overthrow imperialism and capitalism through organizing and revolution. Proujansky photographed her parents’ propaganda archive, surveillance records, family snapshots and current lives, describing their activism, and subsequent turn toward family life, from an intimate distance.

You can find Alice Proujansky: Hard Times are Fighting Times (Gnomic Books, $42.00) in ICP’s shop.

About the Speakers

Alice Proujansky is a photographer and quilter looking at family labor: birth, work, motherhood and identity. Her book, Hard Times are Fighting Times (Gnomic Book, 2023), uses archival and documentary photography to examine the legacy of radical activism in her family. Her photographs of culturally-responsive birth work have been published extensively.

Alice’s work has been published by Aperture, The Guardian, The New Republic, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Photo District News, The Intercept, The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review and others. She has received support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, International Women’s Media Fund, Magnum Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Peleh Fund, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Women Photograph. Her work has been exhibited at the Canadian Center for Architecture, Museum of the City of New York, Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York University, Photoville and United Photo Industries. Alice has led workshops for Aperture, the Bass Museum, Fotografiska, the Magnum Foundation and Working Assumptions. She was the lead curriculum writer for Aperture On Sight, a photography and visual literacy curriculum, and her first book, Go Photo! An Activity Book for Kids was published by Aperture in 2016. A member of Women Photograph, Alice grew up in Greenfield, MA. She graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Sara Ickow is the Senior Manager of Exhibitions and Collections at the International Center of Photography, where she been a curator of exhibitions including ICP at 50: From the Collection, 1845–2021, Gillian Laub: Family Matters and Between Friends: From the ICP Collection. She is also Managing Director of Women Photograph and editor of the book Women Photograph: What We See (White Lion Publishing, 2023)​. Previously, she worked as a curatorial assistant and collections manager with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. She holds an MA in art history from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts.

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