Oct 3–11, 2026 My Plan
Portrait of Lynn Whitney

Photo via FotoFocus

FotoFocusSpeaker · Artist

Lynn Whitney

Associate Professor Emeritus

Lynn Whitney is a large format black-and-white film photographer working in the documentary tradition. Her photographs illuminate timeless questions central to the human search for meaning and purpose, grounded by the landscape and animals. Through diverse, but universally connected subject matter including soldiers in the military, sisters in the convent, family members, farmers, and birders, Whitney’s work addresses the mysterious air we share in community with one another.

Whitney earned her B.A. in American Culture Studies from Boston University, her B.F.A. in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and her M.F.A. from Yale School of Art. Her monograph, Lake Erie (2023) was published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany, and a monograph featuring her convent photographs, published by Dust Collective, will be available early 2027.

Whitney has received commissions from the Toledo Museum of Art and The George Gund Foundation in Cleveland, and an Individual Artist Grant from the Ohio Arts Council. Her work is in the collections of the Toledo Museum of Art, OH; The George Gund Foundation, Cleveland, OH; the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago Midwest Photographers Project, IL; the Cleveland Clinic, OH; Ohio Humanities; Southeast Center for Photographic Studies, Daytona Beach, FL; and Yale University, New Haven, CT.

Whitney is Associate Professor Emeritus of Photography at Bowling Green State University, where she served as Photography area head in the School of Art for over thirty years. She now lives in Northwest Ohio. (Photo Credit: Kevin Vereecke)

Events · 2

As artist

Hours not listed · Oct 2–Feb 7

FotoFocusExhibition

In the Interest of Time

Contemporary Arts Center

Theresa Bembnister, Elijah Howe and 6 more

photography · featured exhibition

Details

Bringing together seven regional artists whose practices engage with the concept of time, In the Interest of Time was developed through a FotoFocus juried open call, led by independent curator Theresa Bembnister.

Joseph Vitone and Lynn Whitney document their subjects over extended periods of time. In 1998, Vitone began photographing relatives around his hometown of Akron, OH, which evolved into a series of intimate portraits recording nearly three decades of life transitions: birthdays, divorces, illnesses, children growing up to become parents themselves. Whitney photographed the shoreline of Lake Erie stretching between Cleveland and Toledo for more than a decade. Her work captures humanity’s complex relationship to this priceless natural resource.

For the series 1655 Ireland Rd., Jordanne Renner mailed prints of her family home to her father and stepmother, who added their observations to the photographs with markers and Post-its. Twenty-three years later, Renner revisits the work, inviting her brother and father to respond to the images following her stepmother’s passing, reflecting on the passing of time and loss.

Julie Renée Jones’ work in Hold Still marks a time of transition—a new mother’s psychological shift in identity—using visual characteristics of the horror genre, such as deep shadows and stark camera angles.

Robyn Moore’s Being in the Land functions as a visual metaphor for deep time, the temporal framework for slow-moving geological change. Spectral figures appear in her compositions, alluding to the ancient history of the surrounding landscapes.

Elijah Howe preserves a timeworn historical subject—the small town of Chained Rock, KY—through a trove of archival materials, handmade crafts, and contemporary photographs. A close look, however, may lead viewers to question their assumptions of photographic truth.

Through his series Witness Trees and Indelible Structures, Osamu James Nakagawa documents land once used as Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II. This work visually preserves physical histories at risk of being otherwise lost to time.

Also with Julie Renée Jones (artist), Robyn Moore (artist), Osamu James Nakagawa (artist), Jordanne Renner (artist), Joseph Vitone (artist), Lynn Whitney (artist)

Cost: Free for Pass Holders in October, venue members, children 18 and under, and SNAP/EBT recipients. General admission: $12

Source: fotofocus.org (opens in a new tab)

As speaker

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FotoFocusTour

In the Interest of Time Gallery Tour

Contemporary Arts Center

Theresa Bembnister, Elijah Howe and 6 more

Opening Program · biennial program · talk

Details

Gallery Tour with In the Interest of Time Artists Elijah Howe, Felton, CA; Julie Renée Jones, Dayton, OH; Robyn Moore, Morehead, KY; Osamu James Nakagawa, Bloomington, IN; Jordanne Renner, Columbus, OH and Piermont, NY; Joseph Vitone, Austin, TX; and Lynn Whitney, Waterville, OH; and Curator Theresa Bembnister, Cleveland, OH

Also with Julie Renée Jones (speaker), Robyn Moore (speaker), Osamu James Nakagawa (speaker), Jordanne Renner (speaker), Joseph Vitone (speaker), Lynn Whitney (speaker)

Cost: Free to Biennial Pass Holders

Source: fotofocus.org (opens in a new tab)

Where

Source: fotofocus.org (opens in a new tab)

All people