Events

Illustrated lecture

Urban change is inevitable, as is our ambivalence towards modernization and the possible loss of heritage which accompanies it. During the second half of the nineteenth-century, Paris was re-imagined and a structure of wide boulevards constructed to crisscross the network of older streets. It was Charles Marville's task to document in photographs what Georges Haussmann slated for demolition. In this illustrated lecture, photographer Peter Sramek discusses his process of revisiting Marville's sites to record the changes of the past 150 years and to speak with today's Parisians about how the city continues to change in some of its oldest neighborhoods.

The exhibition Charles Marville, Photographer of Paris is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from January 27 to May 4.

Peter Sramek studied photography at MIT under Minor White and has taught at the Ontario College of Art & Design University in Toronto since 1976 where he is currently Chair of Cross-Disciplinary Art Practices.