For students entering the ICP-Bard MFA program any preconceived notions of process as image-based artists are immediately set aside as they realize that in order to learn, some unlearning must first be done. Developing a studio practice despite using a medium that has mainly existed in the darkroom in the past or in front of a computer for the foreseeable future provides the pedagogical foundation that endows artists' futures with something that is "forever"—how to develop an idea, work it from several angles, fail, be led astray, return to it or not, and succeed by a process of elimination and experimentation.

This approach to contemporary photography is central to the program. Being in the studio—and in a community studio, at that—is essential to the germination of ideas and the development of work that has culminated yearly for the past decade in a string of solo thesis exhibitions. The studio environment has allowed students the freedom to experiment, to question, to wrestle with theory and sublimate it into work. This exhibit celebrates the vast diversity of such practices. Creativity through experimentation is the fundamental inheritance from the ICP-Bard MFA program and a hallmark of the International Center of Photography. In that spirit, The Future is Forever presents 10 years of work by graduates of the program.

Exhibition curated by Jorge Alberto Perez, MFA '12.

Featured Artists

Willy Somma, MFA '05
Tatiana Kronberg, MFA '06
David Smith, MFA '07
Christine Callahan, MFA '09
Liz Sales, MFA '10
Dillon DeWaters, MFA '10
Garret Miller, MFA '11
Hernease Davis, MFA '11
Libby Pratt, MFA '12
Daniel Temkin, MFA '12
Jorge Alberto Perez, MFA '12
Nona Faustine, MFA '13
Christian Erroi, MFA '13
Kim Weston, MFA '14
Joseph Desler Costa, MFA '15

Getting to ICP at Mana 

Sign up for free shuttle bus service to and from Mana Contemporary for the exhibition opening on Sunday, May 3.