ICP Lessons: Debi Cornwall on Necessary Fictions

Conceptual documentarian, filmmaker, and former civil-rights lawyer Debi Cornwall is no stranger to questioning the role of truth in images and the power of using fiction to illuminate truth through narrative storytelling. Through her projects, Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay and Necessary Fictions, Cornwall often employs deep investigative tactics to present facts that are concealed or expressed within state-created fictions, culminating in deeply immersive projects that question more than just the reality of the viewer. Join us for the next session in ICP Lessons, hosted by David Campany, for a three-day lecture series highlighting Debi Cornwall’s approach to using fiction to address real world issues and introducing key concepts and methods for applying to your own photographic practice—whether documentary, fine-art, or multimedia—which will be the focus of her upcoming ICP course, Necessary Fictions.

Session 1: Wednesday, February 17, 1–2 PM ET
Welcome to Camp America: Debi Cornwall introduces her practice and visual strategy for documenting invisible systems.

Session 2: Thursday, February 18, 1–2 PM ET
Through Necessary Fictions: Cornwall discusses the role of constructed fictions to tell truths through her ongoing multimedia project, Necessary Fictions

Session 3:  Friday, February 19, 1–2 PM ET
From concept to the classroom: With examples selected from multiple genres of visual practice, Cornwall sets a foundation for thinking about how to use fictions to illuminate truths ahead of her ICP Course: Necessary Fictions.


Debi Cornwall is a conceptual documentary artist who returned to visual expression in 2014 after a 12-year career as a civil-rights lawyer. Marrying dark humor with structural critique, she employs photographs, video, testimony, and archival materials to examine American state-created realities. A Deutsche Börse Prize nominee, Debi has been honored with a NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Photography, a Leica Women Foto Award, and shortlists for the W. Eugene Smith Fund Grant and the Tim Hetherington Trust Visionary Award. Her two photo books, Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay (Radius Books, 2017), and Necessary Fictions (Radius Books, 2020), are internationally acclaimed.











When: Wed., Feb. 17, 2021 - Fri., Feb. 19, 2021 at 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Where: International Center of Photography (ICP)
79 Essex St.
212-857-0000
Price: $35
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Conceptual documentarian, filmmaker, and former civil-rights lawyer Debi Cornwall is no stranger to questioning the role of truth in images and the power of using fiction to illuminate truth through narrative storytelling. Through her projects, Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay and Necessary Fictions, Cornwall often employs deep investigative tactics to present facts that are concealed or expressed within state-created fictions, culminating in deeply immersive projects that question more than just the reality of the viewer. Join us for the next session in ICP Lessons, hosted by David Campany, for a three-day lecture series highlighting Debi Cornwall’s approach to using fiction to address real world issues and introducing key concepts and methods for applying to your own photographic practice—whether documentary, fine-art, or multimedia—which will be the focus of her upcoming ICP course, Necessary Fictions.

Session 1: Wednesday, February 17, 1–2 PM ET
Welcome to Camp America: Debi Cornwall introduces her practice and visual strategy for documenting invisible systems.

Session 2: Thursday, February 18, 1–2 PM ET
Through Necessary Fictions: Cornwall discusses the role of constructed fictions to tell truths through her ongoing multimedia project, Necessary Fictions

Session 3:  Friday, February 19, 1–2 PM ET
From concept to the classroom: With examples selected from multiple genres of visual practice, Cornwall sets a foundation for thinking about how to use fictions to illuminate truths ahead of her ICP Course: Necessary Fictions.


Debi Cornwall is a conceptual documentary artist who returned to visual expression in 2014 after a 12-year career as a civil-rights lawyer. Marrying dark humor with structural critique, she employs photographs, video, testimony, and archival materials to examine American state-created realities. A Deutsche Börse Prize nominee, Debi has been honored with a NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship in Photography, a Leica Women Foto Award, and shortlists for the W. Eugene Smith Fund Grant and the Tim Hetherington Trust Visionary Award. Her two photo books, Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay (Radius Books, 2017), and Necessary Fictions (Radius Books, 2020), are internationally acclaimed.

Buy tickets/get more info now