Events
Upcoming Events
20 January 2022, 7:30pm (Ulm, Germany & Online, €6, register here)
Panel Discussion: Inside Guantánamo
With releasee author Mohamedou Ould Salahi, Andreas Schüller of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and Urs Feichtner of the Ulm Treatment Center for Torture Victims (BFU) and Amnesty International.
Selected Past Events
12 December 2021
Opening discussion with curator Daniela Baumann, Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay exhibition
Stadthaus Ulm, Münsterplatz 50, 89073 Ulm, Germany
3 December 2021
Artist Lecture, "Welcome to Camp America: Picturing Guantánamo and Its Diaspora," at symposium, “20 Years of Guantánamo: Temporalities of Witnessing” („20 Jahre Guantánamo: Zeitlichkeit der Zeugenschaft“). With Mansoor Adayfi and Mark Denbeux.
19 & 20 November 2021 (Berlin, Germany)
World premiere, Pineland/Hollywood
interfilm, 37th International Short Film Festival Berlin
13 November 2021 (Paris, France)
Book signing, Necessary Fictions
Paris Photo
13 September 2021
"Visualizing the War from Within: Post-9/11 Imagemaking,"
Artist talk & conversation with Nina Berman and Jennifer Karady. Moderated by David Campany and hosted by the ICP Museum.
10 July 2021
"The Perpetual Canvas": In conversation with John Fanestil, Executive Director of Via International, about how artists are using Friendship Park at the southern border to raise awareness about human rights.
Part of the CASE Art Fund CASETalks series.
29 June 2021
Panelist & presenter, “The Real, the Unreal, and the Authentic”
With Marvin Heiferman, Josué Rivas, and Alexey Yurenev. Moderated by Fred Ritchin.
Beyond Magnum, Chapter 3: "Toward a Future for Photography"
14 May 2021
"Debi Cornwall, David Chickey, and Radius Books : A Collaboration"
Griffin Museum Photobook Weekend
22 April 2021
Panelist, "The Art of Pitches and Proposals," with Magnum Foundation Director Emma Raynes, Photo Editor Sandra Stevenson, and photographers Maggie Steber and Yana Paskova. Moderated by Photoville cofounder Laura Roumanos.
Leica Women Summit
6-7 & 27-28 March 2021
Necessary Fictions workshop
This workshop is a collective practice of looking and thinking. In a world of deepfakes and “fake news,” the role of images in telling true stories is increasingly in question. What strategies are available to visual image-makers addressing real-world issues? How may fictions be used in narrative storytelling? In this online course we investigate the many ways fictions can illuminate the truth, visually. Students will be introduced to examples in still photography, film, and other visual media, and explore how to integrate these methods into their own practice, whether in a documentary or fine-art context.
ICP Continuing Education program
17, 18 & 19 February 2021
ICP Lessons: Debi Cornwall on Necessary Fictions
A three-day series of online lectures and discussions hosted by David Campany, ICP Managing Director of Programs.
19 September 2020
Diversity in Visual Storytelling
Photoville Main Stage
With Leica Women Foto Project awardees Eva Wooldridge and Yana Paskova, moderated by Laura Roumanos
4 September 2020 (Watch online)
Necessary Fictions US book launch, with Yasufumi Nakamori, Tate Modern Senior Curator of International Art (Photography), and Makeda Best, Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photographs, Harvard Art Museums.
Hosted by Radius Books.
27 August 2020
Necessary Fictions: A Conversation with Leica Women Foto Award juror, curator Elizabeth Avedon, about photo book-making.
Hosted by Leica Camera
31 July 2020 (Watch an excerpt here at #3: Realities and Fictions)
Panelist, "Visual Journalism in the Post-Truth Era," with Tanya Habjouqa, Stephen Mayes, and Zahra Rasool. Moderated by Fred Ritchin, hosted by Fotodemic.
21 May 2020
Artist's Lecture, "Necessary Fictions"
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
14 & 15 March 2020 (NYC)
Weekend workshop: Necessary Fictions.
ICP
5 March 2020 (Washington, D.C.)
"Necessary Fictions": In conversation with David Chickey at STABLE Arts.
16 January 2020 (Washington, D.C.)
Invited speaker, National Geographic Storytellers Summit.
18 November 2019 (New York, NY)
Leica x Soho House: Women in Focus
17 October 2019 (New York, NY)
40th Annual W. Eugene Smith Grants in Humanistic Photography Ceremony
Honored as a finalist for Necessary Fictions.
9 May 2019 (London, England)
Tim Hetherington Trust Visionary Award Shortlist & Award Presentation
"Tim Hetherington (photographer and filmmaker 1970 ~ 2011) inspired a generation with his grassroots innovations as a contributor to global media. The Tim Hetherington Trust continues his mission for this and future generations. To this end the Visionary Award introduces visual storytellers working in many different disciplines, each with a nugget of knowledge that will inspire and enlighten. Tonight’s discussion will explore the work and ideas of the [six] journalists and artists shortlisted for the 2019 Visionary Award, culminating in the announcement of the award itself.
The jury's statement in shortlisting NECESSARY FICTIONS: Pineland: "Debi is developing an extraordinary documentary voice that uses factual records of fictional events to explore our relationship with truth at a time when the traditional media doesn’t know how to respond to a heaving ocean of disinformation. The two-screen production proposed for the Visionary Award is an installation piece with potential to influence key media players who are struggling to express modern complexities and meanwhile would be essential viewing for anyone trying to make sense of what we see in the media."
11 October 2018 (New Haven, CT)
Artist Lecture, Yale Law School Visual Law Project
8 October 2018 (New York, NY)
Artist Lecture, Pace University (Art as a Vehicle for Social Change).
28 June 2018 (Philadelphia, PA)
Panelist, "Rendered: Art, Wrongful Imprisonment, and Guantánamo."
With releasee memoirist Mohamedou Ould Salahi; attorney Christi A. Charpentier; and artist Emily Abendroth, founder of the Lifelines Project. Moderated by Prof. Nicole Fleetwood.
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
5 April 2018 (New York, NY)
Aperture PhotoBook Spotlight talk with Lesley A. Martin and David Chickey
AIPAD.
16 March 2018 (Houston, TX)
Creative Conversation with James Estrin, New York Times Lens editor
Fotofest Biennial.
10 February 2018 (Paris, France)
Conversation between Debi Cornwall, Aglaia Konrad, Paola Yakoub, and curator Diane Dufour on work in the group show, En Suspens (In Between).
Le BAL.
13 November 2017 (Paris, France)
Artist Lecture & Discussion, Photography in the Age of Global Surveillance and Perpetual Wars, with Lewis Bush
Columbia University Global Centers.
16 October 2017 (New York, NY)
Symposium Panelist, What Does it Mean to Make Art at Guantánamo?
John Jay College, CUNY.
5 October 2017 (New York, NY)
Panelist, Bending the Frame: Where do we go from here? Moderated by Fred Ritchin.
NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
22 September 2017, MoMA PS1 (Queens, NY)
Panelist, "Photobooks: Protest & Resistance," Contemporary Artists' Book Conference
New York Art Book Fair.
14 March 2017 (Geneva, Switzerland)
Panelist, Saying War, Building Peace
Palais des Nations, UN Headquarters.