Artist Talk Presented by: Barbara Diener

This event takes place at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel, 163 E. Walton Pl. Chicago, IL 60611

Join artist Barbara Diener for a conversation about her new book Phantom Power.  In Phantom Power Diener explores and interprets the ineffable qualities of human existence. Through her photography using various techniques such as suggestive aberrations and double exposures she draws on an expansive history of photographers who have experimented with the medium’s unique relationship with the concept of truth and unexplained phenomena.

Diener writes: “Since its invention, photography has lent a sense of immortality to its subjects. In recent years the paranormal has received amplified media attention through numerous ‘reality’ television programs that sensationalize any phenomena for the camera. On the contrary, my approach is self-reflective and curious. To make the resulting images I have adopted both traditional and contemporary methods of capturing the invisible, as well as employed my own interpretation of the magical and mystical”.

Diener will be signing copies of Phantom Powerafter the talk.  Books will be available for sale.

Barbara Diener received her Bachelor of Fine Art in photography from the California College of the Arts and Masters in Fine Art in Photography from Columbia College Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at numerous venues, among them the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, Hyde Park Art Center, Hyde Park, IL, David Weinberg Gallery, Chicago, IL, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, Pingyao Photo Festival, China, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA, among others. Diener’s photographs are part of several private and institutional collections including the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. She is currently participating in the residency program HATCH Projects 2015-2016 through the Chicago Artist Coalition. Diener is a winner of Flash Forward 2013, the recipient of a Follett Fellowship at Columbia College Chicago and was awarded the Albert P. Weisman Award in 2012 and 2013. In addition, Diener received an Individual Artist Grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Events in 2015. She is the Collection Manager in the Department of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago and teaches photography at Oakton Community College and at the School of the Art Institute.

Image: Crows, 2017