Truth and meaning was the topic of conversation at the sold out show, “Photography and Storytelling," held Jan. 26 in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at The Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Actress Anna Deavere Smith mediated a conversation with photographic artists Eileen Cowin and Carrie Mae Weems on how story telling affects their art.

Cowin, a devout reader, performed three excerpts from “Briar Rose,” “The Beauty and the Sorrow,” and an essay from the Pittsburg Post Gazette by Errol Morris.

“The line from the World War I piece haunted me and I just wished I could make something like that in my own work,” Cowin said when asked why she chose those particular readings. Of her own work, she added, “I’ve always thought photographs were lies. All my work has been based on the relationship between fact and fiction.”

She said that her work is juxtaposed in such a way that it leaves people with something to think about and that the color rose is very prominent in the series. She explains that this work references the body, under the skin, the inside of a mouth, all in a sensual way.

Weems showcased a series of photos with text from her piece “From Here I saw What Happened and I Cried.” She demonstrated the relationship between the words and the photographs by reading the words in a slow methodical rhythm
which she explained connected each picture to the next, creating a flow that was
then broken by the word “Ha” at the end of a phrase which then broke the pattern of repetition.

Weems’ work also used the color red to symbolize blood. The words were placed
over the photos to add a different element to the narrative and distance the original photograph.

The work of Cowin and Weems can be seen in the Narrative Interventions in
Photography exhibition until March 11, 2012 at the Getty Center.