With some 400 members, the San Francisco-based California Camera Club was the largest photography network in the United States in the early twentieth century. In her book The California Camera Club, Carolin Görgen recaptures the lost history of this community—both women and men—and their crucial contribution to shaping the cultural imagination of California and the American West as a photographic territory.
Although the club played a decisive role in advancing the careers of Ansel Adams and other “big names” of American photography, its most significant legacy lies in fostering collaborative outdoor practices. In telling the story of these largely unknown photographers, a new perspective on American photography and its collective dimension is revealed.
An in-person and virtual presentation by Carolin Görgen, author and Associate Professor of American Studies, Sorbonne Université, Paris