Zora J. Murff will give a Visiting Artist Lecture in the West Virginia University School of Art & Design at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29.

“Zora J Murff is a trailblazing photographer, whose photographic work confronts important social and cultural constructs relevant to our world today, including race and criminality,” said Michael Sherwin, associate professor of photography.

In "Looking As A Radical Act," Murff will discuss the history and evolution of American anti-Blackness and how phenomena like black codes, spectacle lynching, government-endorsed segregation, mass incarceration, state-sanctioned police murder, and socioeconomic disenfranchisement are all tied to the practice of chattel slavery. Throughout this violent history, individuals have employed the camera and image-making as a tool for social and political liberation. Murff will also explore the importance of intention to photographic seeing and how he continues this tradition in his own artistic practice.

The lecture will be in-person in Bloch Hall in WVU’s Canady Creative Arts Center as well as streamed on Youtube. A reception will follow the lecture. 

Murff’s lecture accompanies their exhibition, “At No Point In Between,” currently on display in the Laura Mesaros Gallery at WVU’s Canady Creative Arts Center. The exhibition will be open before and after the lecture.

For more information on Muff’s lecture and exhibition and to stream the lecture, visit https://artanddesign.wvu.edu/events.