Episode 130: Lois Conner

Written By Rachel Zucker
Rachel and Lois smile at the camera. Rachel (left) is a White woman with brown hair and deep red glasses. She wears a white cowl-neck sweater. Lois (right) is a White woman with blond hair. She wears a deep blue top and green necklace.

Rachel talks to photographer and (her former) photography teacher Lois Conner about Conner’s path to becoming a photographer, working at the UN, her yearly trips to China, teaching, the challenges and delights of a two-decade-long project of photographing pregnant women and the work of organizing the vertical and horizontal large format (nude) portraits into a book—To Be—published by Artiere in 2024. Conner talks about teaching, about being a straight cis woman photographing nude women, the circle as an artistic format, how a technical mistake led to the appearance of the Venus of Willendorf in her darkroom on a very hot night in Pennsylvania, and much more. The two talk about one of Rachel’s favorite topics: the ethics of representing people in art, and how much Lois’s teaching and the medium of photography influenced Rachel’s development as a poet.

For a list of Lois Conner’s publications and exhibitions please visit her website.

Also Referenced:

Bio

The New York-based photographer Lois Conner has been traveling the world with a 7x17” banquet camera for nearly half a century. Through the elongated format of her work she has explored the landscape and the temper of our times; her art is both contemporary and, due to her vision, ‘a long view’ that captures the eternal in the moment, timeless. Conner’s work is that of the artist-artisan: every aspect of her art involves the hand made combined with demanding techniques of platinum printing. In recent years she has employed digital technologies to expand the format of her work, embracing landscapes from the natural to the man-made. Her annual trips to China since 1984 have allowed her to follow the transformation of the People’s Republic and to share her unique understanding of the country’s changing urban and rural mien, as well as the vistas that inspired the country’s unique culture.

Conner has been based in New York City since 1971, where she worked for the United Nations until 1984. During that time she was awarded a Bachelor in Fine Arts (photography) from the Pratt Institute and a Master’s degree from Yale University. Conner has also taught photography at many places, including over a decade as professor of photography at Yale University.

For a list of Lois Conner’s publications and exhibitions please visit her website.

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Rachel Zucker
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Episode 129: Reading Eugenia Leigh’s Bianca