RESEARCH
FamCam collaborators and partners produce research and events that share the work of The Family Camera Network and our collections at the Royal Ontario Museum and The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives (formerly the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives) with broad audiences.
Select research activities and publications
Grants
SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2016-2019). Principal Investigator: Thy Phu. Co-applicants: Sarah Bassnett, Elspeth Brown, Deepali Dewan, and Sarah Parsons
Catalogues
Brown, Elspeth and Thy Phu. 2018. "Queering Family Photography." Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival catalogue.
Dewan, Deepali, Jennifer Orpana, Thy Phu, Sarah Bassnett, and Julie Crooks. 2017. "The Family Camera." Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival catalogue: 94-99.
Ryerson F+PPCM students with co-instructors Gaëlle Morel and Sophie Hackett. 2018. "Soon we were en route again...": The Margaret Corry Albums (1947-1963). enrouteagain.ca/publication.html.
"The Family Camera" in the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival catalogue: 94-99 (J. Orpana, 2017)
Conferences
Reframing Family Photography conference, Toronto, Ontario (Sept. 21-23, 2017). Organized by: Thy Phu, Elspeth Brown, Sarah Bassnett, Sarah Parsons, Melanie Wilmink, and Sajdeep Soomal.
The State of the Album symposium, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (April 13-14, 2017). Organized by: Thy Phu and Laura Wexler.
Famcam collaborators at a digital humanities workshop during the state of the album symposium (J. Orpana, 2017)
Digital Projects & Websites
The Family Camera Network. 2016-2018.
Queering Family Photography Digital Exhibition. 2018. Curated by Elspeth Brown and Thy Phu, with Richard Fung, Mark Kasumovic, and Sajdeep Soomal.
ROM Online Collection: The Family Camera Network public archive at the Royal Ontario Museum. 2019.
"Soon we were en route again...": The Margaret Corry Albums, 1947-1963." 2018. Curated by Ryerson F+PPCM students with co-instructors Gaëlle Morel and Sophie Hackett.
Screenshot of "Soon we were en route again…”: the margaret corry albums, 1947-1963” digital project (i. kohan-harpaz, 2018)
Exhibitions
Queering Family Photography at Stephen Bulger Gallery (Apr. 21 - May 26, 2018). Curated by Elspeth Brown Lead) and Thy Phu, with the assistance of Richard Fung, Mark Kasumovic, and Sajdeep Soomal.
"Soon we were en route again": The Margaret Corry Albums (1947-1963) at the Ryerson Image Centre (Jan. 24 - Apr. 8, 2018). Curated by students of Ryerson's Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management program with co-instructors Gaëlle Morel and Sophie Hackett.
The Family Camera at the Royal Ontario Museum (May 6 - October 29, 2017) and the Art Gallery of Mississauga (May 4 - Aug. 27, 2017). Curated by: Deepali Dewan (lead), Jennifer Orpana, Thy Phu, Sarah Bassnett, and Julie Crooks, with the assistance of Silvia Forni and Sarah Parsons.
We Are From Nicodemus - Deanna Bowen at McIntosh Gallery (March 21 - April 27, 2019). Curated by The Family Camera Network.
Deanna Bowen, We are From nicodemus (2017), INstallation view, Mcintosh Gallery, Western University (S. Bassnett, 2019)
Panels
"Family Photography at Home" at the American Studies Association, Boston, Massachusetts (Nov. 19, 2017). Organized by Thy Phu. Chaired by Shawn Michelle Smith. Featuring: Elspeth Brown, Laura Wexler, and Leigh Raiford.
"Queering Family Photography: A Roundtable" at University of Toronto, Hart House East Common Room (Apr. 26, 2018). Featuring Sunil Gupta, Albert McLeod, and Richard Fung, with Elspeth Brown and Thy Phu (moderators).
"Reframing Family Photography: Carework & Visual Kinship" at Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Mississauga (Nov. 1, 2017). Featuring: Sarah Parsons, Sajdeep Soomal, and Celio Barreto, with Jennifer Orpana (moderator).
“The Culture and Art of Family Photographs” at the India International Centre, New Delhi, India (Feb. 21, 2019). Featuring: Thy Phu, Elspeth Brown, Deepali Dewan, and Sarah Parsons.
"The Family Camera: Missing Chapters Re-Visited" at Royal Ontario Museum (Sept. 30, 2017). Featuring: Thy Phu, Elspeth Brown, Mudit Ganguly, and Hon Lu, with Jennifer Orpana (moderator).
"The Family Camera Network” at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (Feb. 22, 2019). Featuring: Thy Phu, Deepali Dewan, Elspeth Brown, and Sarah Parsons.
"The Family Camera: The Making of an Exhibition" for the Museum Talks Series at the iSchool, University of Toronto (Oct. 18, 2017). Featuring: Deepali Dewan, Jennifer Orpana, Thy Phu, and Elspeth Brown, with Akshaya Tankha (moderator).
The Family Camera: Missing Chapters revisited Panel - Jennifer Orpana, Thy Phu, Elspeth Brown, Mudit Ganguly, and Hon Lu - at the ROM (D. Dewan, 2017)
Papers
Moser, Gabby and Maya Wilson-Sanchez. 2019. “The Album as Archive: Margaret Corry’s souvenir photographs through the lens of Canadian citizenship (1946-63). College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, New York.
Orpana, Jennifer. 2017. “The Family Camera: Holiday Snapshots.” Photographic Historical Society of Canada, Toronto, Ontario.
Orpana, Jennifer. 2017. “Smiling from the Garden Chair: Exploring Visual Conventions of Childhood in The Family Camera Network Archive,” Reframing Family Photography Conference, Toronto, Ontario.
Phu, Thy. 2018. “The Family Camera Project.” Photography: The Black Box of History Conference. Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario.
Gabrielle Moser and Maya Wilson-Sanchez participating at the CAA conference (Michele Pearson Clarke, 2019)
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Dewan, Deepali, ed. 2018. Trans Asia Photography Review: Family Photographs 9 (1).
Parsons, Sarah, and Jennifer Orpana, eds. 2017. Photography and Culture: Seeing Family 10 (2).
Phu, Thy and Elspeth Brown. 2018. “The Cultural Politics of Aspiration: Family Photography’s Mixed Feelings.” Journal of Visual Culture 17 (2): 152.165.
Phu, Thy, Elspeth H. Brown, and Deepali Dewan. 2017. "The Family Camera Network." Photography and Culture 10 (2): 147-163.
Cover of photography & culture: seeing family special issue (J. Orpana, 2017).
Articles
Dewan, Deepali. 2018. “Collecting Family Photographs.” PIX. (Interview by Rahaab Allana with an introduction by Sukanya Baskar).
Dewan, Deepali and Jennifer Orpana. 2017. "Family Photographs: Shaping memories and family narratives." ROM Magazine: 38-43.
"Family Photographs: Shaping memories and family narratives," in ROM Magazine: 38-43 (J. Orpana, 2017)
Related Courses
2018, "Queer and Trans Oral History," University of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario). Instructor: Elspeth Brown.
2018, "National and Global Perspectives on Cultural Studies: Family Photography, Oral History, and Migration," Western University (London, Ontario). Instructor: Thy Phu.
2017, "Exhibitions and Publications," Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management, Ryerson University (Toronto, Ontario). Co-instructors: Gaëlle Morel and Sophie Hackett.
2017, "Visual Kinship: Touching, Feeling, Telling, and Listening to Family Photographs in Context," Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut). Co-instructors: Thy Phu and Laura Wexler.
2017, "Photography in Contemporary Art," York University (Toronto, Ontario). Instructor: Sarah Parsons.
2016/2017, "The Family Camera at the ROM," OCAD University (Toronto, Ontario). Co-instructors: Martha Ladly, Immony Men, Julie Crooks, and Jennifer Orpana.
OCAdu students installing the living room for the family camera exhibition (j. Orpana, 2017)
Related Student Projects
Abel, Tori. 2017. “The Prodigious Frightful Fall”: An Exploration of Tourist Images of Niagara Falls in Stereography and on Instagram.” MA Thesis. Film and Photographic Preservation and Collection Management Program, Ryerson University.
Golafshani, Maryam. 2018. “Why Family Photographs Matter.” Video. (MA candidate, Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism, Western University).
Kohan-Harpaz, Idit. 2018. “Digitizing Family Albums at The Family Camera Network, Royal Ontario Museum (ROM): A Case Study of the Evans Family Collection.” MA Thesis. Film and Photographic Preservation and Collection Management Program, Ryerson University.
Laruan, Ramolen. 2019. “Black Determinism: Movement, Trauma, and Aspiration in We Are From Nicodemus.” Exhibition essay. McIntosh Gallery, Western University. (MFA candidate, Department of Visual Art, Western University). PDF
Pavao, Vitor. In progress. “The Museum as a Collector of Vernacular Born-Digital Photographs: A Case Study of The Family Camera Network collection at the Royal Ontario Museum.” MA Thesis. Film and Photographic Preservation and Collection Management Program, Ryerson University.
screenshot of Maryam Golafshani’s video, Why family photographs Matter (2018)
