The Griffin Museum is pleased to partner with Maine Media in presenting the 2024 Recipient of the Arnold Newman Prize Camille Farrah Lenain in an online conversation about her winning series, Made of Smokeless Fire. This work will be featured in an exhibition in Winchester at the Griffin opening December 13, 2024 running through January 8, 2025. © Camille Farrah Lenain
© Camille Farrah LenainBouchta, Marseille, 2022
© Camille Farrah LenainJoin photographer Camille Farrah Lenain, recipient of the 2024 Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture, online for an engaging talk about her project Made of Smokeless Fire. In this project, Camille pays tribute to her late uncle Farid and brings visibility to LGBTQIA+ individuals of Muslim culture in France, a community often underrepresented and simply ignored. By melding photography with personal testimonies transformed into poem-portraits, Camille explores the intersection of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and racism, and how queer Muslims are actively challenging these inequities while redefining their own cultural and religious heritage. Made of Smokeless Fire disrupts stereotypes, unveils the unspoken aggressions in France, and celebrates the nuanced resilience of its participants. This lecture is in collaboration with The Griffin Museum of Photography and hosted by Elizabeth Greenberg, Maine Media Provost. Camille Farrah Lenain is a French-Algerian documentary and portrait photographer who grew up in Paris, studied Photography at l'ESA in Brussels and at ICP in New York City (virtual). She relocated to New Orleans in 2013, where she photographs for her community, teaches at Tulane University and works on long-term projects that challenge societal preconception, exploring the notions of stereotypes and plural identities. With a passion for sound and interviews, she also creates immersive sound pieces and recordings alongside her projects. Camille's photographs have been exhibited internationally, including at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Arab World Institute, Festival Incadaques, and Photoville. She was previously an Artist-in-Residence at the Joan Mitchell Center and Center of Photography in Woodstock.