ICP’s Incubator Space is a new exhibition program designed to highlight the work of emerging photographers who are responding in real time to the world around us. ICP will present a rotating selection of projects by imagemakers experimenting with and pushing boundaries around the documentary tradition.
ICP’s Incubator is located on ICP’s ground floor. The space is free and open to the public during cafe and museum hours.
For the debut of ICP’s Incubator, ICP alumni ‘22 Mackenzie Calle presents a work-in-progress installation of her project The Gay Space Agency.
The Gay Space Agency confronts the American Space program’s historical exclusion of openly queer astronauts. Through documentation of queer history, manipulated NASA archival materials, and a re-imagining of an aspirational fictional space agency for LGBTQ+ astronauts, The Gay Space Agency offers a counter-narrative to the history of the astronaut program and imagines a diverse and accepting future, both above and below our atmosphere.
Join us on March 6 for a conversation between Mackenzie and ICP's Associate Director of Exhibitions Sara Ickow. Learn more here.
About The Artist
Mackenzie Calle is a freelance photographer and National Geographic Explorer based in Brooklyn. Her work typically focuses on long-term stories that investigate systems of power, science, and queer issues. Led by extensive research, she is interested in storytelling that utilizes original photography, archival material, and multimedia approaches to illuminate our past and imagine future possibilities.
She is the recipient of the 2024 World Press Photo in Open Format for North and Central America, was selected for Magnum Foundation’s Counter Histories Fellowship, and was a finalist for the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards, amongst others.
Her work has been published in outletBios that include National Geographic, The Washington Post, GAYLETTER, and The Wall Street Journal and has been exhibited in places that include Fotografiska Stockholm, Photoville, Somerset House, and Pride Photo Festival.
Mackenzie is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and was awarded the Director’s Fellowship to attend ICP’s Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism program. She was also selected to Eddie Adams Workshop XXXV. Prior to her freelance career, she was a Photography Producer with NBCUniversal.
