Pictures for Charis is loosely based on the life of Charis Wilson and the time she spent with photographer Edward Weston from 1934 – 1945. Using Through Another Lens: My Life with Edward Weston (Wilson’s autobiography) and California and the West (with text written by Wilson and images by Weston) as a guide, Pictures for Charis takes a closer look at photographer-to-sitter relationships as Kelli Connell and her partner travel to diverse California locales where Wilson and Weston lived and made work together. The forthcoming book of this work includes photographs and writing by Connell as well as passages written by Wilson and photographs made by Weston. Pictures for Charis serves as an homage to Charis Wilson, and as a backdrop to raise questions about gender, sexuality and relationships in the twenty-first century.

Free parking is available in the surface lot or parking garage at Newfields, as well as a self-serve coat check. Enter Newfields via the main entrance and follow the directional signage to reach DeBoest Lecture Hall.

Kelli Connell’s work investigates sexuality, gender, identity and photographer / sitter relationships. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J Paul Getty Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Dallas Museum of Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, among others. Publications of her work include PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice (Aperture), Photo Art: The New World of Photography (Aperture), and the monograph Kelli Connell: Double Life (DECODE Books). Connell has received fellowships from The Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, PLAYA, Peaked Hill Trust, LATITUDE, Light Work, and The Center for Creative Photography. Connell is an editor at SKYLARK Editions and a professor at Columbia College Chicago.