Photographer and filmmaker Louie Palu will present a lecture on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 5:30 p.m. in Richards Hall Rm. 15. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Palu is a special visiting artist supported by the UNL Research Council and will be hosted by Hixson-Lied Professor of Art (photography) Dana Fritz in the School of Art, Art History & Design.
Palu’s lecture will focus on his 30+ years of on-the-ground reporting and art making, including the war in Afghanistan, prison in Guantanamo Bay, the U.S.-Mexico border, American politics leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, extremist groups, terrorists, organized crime and numerous elections since 1991. These events serve as a set of broader themes for his visual research into systems of power, state control, democracy, violence, conflict and how order is maintained or lost.
“His lecture is of particular relevance as we near the Presidential election,” Fritz said.
Palu’s work has examined social political issues, such as climate change, human rights and conflict for 30 years. His projects have been selected for a Guggenheim Fellowship and World Press Photo Awards.
His work has appeared in “National Geographic Magazine,” “The New York Times,” “The Washington Post,” “The Guardian,” “Der Spiegel,” “Le Figaro” and “El Pais.” His work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and festivals worldwide and is held in numerous collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the National Gallery of Art.
His films have screened at many festivals including Hot Docs, Barcelona and Munich International Documentary Film Festivals. He is the producer and co-director of the critically acclaimed, award-winning feature documentary film “Kandahar Journals” released in 2015. It screened in numerous festivals in the U.S., South America and Europe and was selected for the Festival Grand Prize at the Arizona International Film Festival, Dziga Vertov Award for Best Feature Documentary and several others.
He is based in Washington, D.C., and has lectured worldwide. Palu holds an M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
For more on Palu and his work, visit his website at https://www.louiepalu.com.