Events
Ongoing Events
24 March to 4 June 2023 (York, England)
Aesthetica Art Prize Finalists Exhibition
York Art Gallery, Exhibition Square, York YO1 7EW, England
Upcoming Events
28 March 2023, 7pm (NYC) (Tickets here)
I am a member of the Honorary Committee hosting the 39th ICP Infinity Awards honoring Ming Smith, Poulomi Basu, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Zora Murff, and Joyce Cowan.
Ziegfeld Ballroom, 141 W. 54th St., NYC.
8 April 2023, 11am (San Diego, CA) (Tickets are free and include MCASD entrance, register here)
Pineland/Hollywood screening and talkback with multimedia artist and UCSD Prof. Michael Trigilio.
Medium Photo Festival
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), Jacobs Hall, La Jolla Room, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla, CA 92307
21 April 2023, 1:30-2:45pm (Leica North America HQ, Teaneck, NJ) (Sold out, waitlist here)
Lecture to participants in the Leica Society International Spring Shoot:
Using her two acclaimed photobook projects as a guide, conceptual documentary artist Debi Cornwall will discuss how to develop long-term, purpose-driven photography projects, transform limits into opportunities, establish goals, build community, and think outside the documentary box.
500 Frank W. Burr Blvd., Suite 570, Teaneck, NJ 07666
30 April 2023 2pm (Detroit, MI, tickets here)
Jade Helm screens as an Official Selection at the Freep Film Festival as part of the Shorts program, "Divided We Fall."
Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202
Date TBA Between May 2023- May 2024 (Online, register here)
I will be presenting as an instructor in the 2023-2024 Nearest Truth Photobook Workshop, a yearlong, hands-on experience for those interested in making their own book. In-person international participation is an option. For a list of fellow instructors, more information, and registration, see here.
Selected Past Events
18 March 2023 (Sebastopol, California)
Jade Helm screens at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival.
18 & 21 February 2023 (Missoula, Montana)
North American premiere of Jade Helm, a finalist in the Mini-Doc Competition at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.
26 to 29 January 2023 (Geneva, Switzerland)
A glimpse of my new work-in-progress as a nominee of the Prix Élysée on view at the Photo Élysée booth during Art Genève.
20 October 2022 (Victoria, BC, Canada)
Pineland/Hollywood screens on opening night of the 25th annual Antimatter [Media Art] Festival.
Deluge Contemporary Art
10 March to 7 August 2022 (Chicago, IL)
Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture, and Reparations Exhibition
DePaul Art Museum
28 July 2022 (Chicago, IL)
Pineland/Hollywood screens as an Official Selection of the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
13 July 2022 (Cambridge, MA)
Pineland/Hollywood screens as an Official Selection of the Boston Short Film Festival.
1 to 12 June 2022 (San Francisco, CA)
Pineland/Hollywood screens as an Official Selection of the 21st SF DocFest.
23 & 26 May 2022 (Zurich, Switzerland)
Pineland/Hollywood screens as an Official Selection at the 24th Videoex Experimental Film & Video Festival, in the International Competition.
12 March 2022 (New York, NY)
Leica Women's Summit panels speaker
The Art of Getting Work Seen, with Maggie Steber and Washington Post photo editor Natalia Jimenez, moderated by Elizabeth Krist.
How to Use your Visual Voice for Social Impact, with Sheila Pee Bright, Ana María Arévalo Gosen, moderated by Fotografiska curator Phoebe Weinstein.
20 January 2022 (Ulm, Germany)
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.
3 December 2021 (Mainz, Germany)
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 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.
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"
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
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.
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.
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 (online)
Artist's Lecture, "Necessary Fictions"
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
16 January 2020 (Washington, D.C.)
Invited speaker, National Geographic Storytellers Summit.
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.