The Sandbox

The photobook is a thriving medium for encountering a group of images, and the preferred presentation of many photographers. This form of publishing responds to the basic structure of photographic production, and is growing despite digital distribution of images. Melissa Catanese and Ed Panar know this terrain well. Catanese and Panar are both artists, and owners of Spaces Corners, a Pittsburgh bookshop dedicated to photography books. As part of the Hillman Photography Initiative, Catanese and Panar were invited to the museum as artists in residence. Their installation, called The Sandbox: At Play with the Photobook, transformed the museum’s Coatroom Gallery into a playful hybrid space for encounters with the photobook: part reading room, part bookshop, part library, part event space. During the three months that the installation was open to the public, visitors encountered a rotating selection of photobooks and intimate events emphasizing contemporary trends that give the medium its character.

The Sandbox was on view at Carnegie Museum of Art May 3–July 28, 2014. See below for an archive of artist talks and film screenings hosted on-site.

Sunday July 27, 2014
Artist Talk: Building a Photobook with Melissa Catanese and Ed Panar

Sunday June 29, 2014
Film Screening: Alec Soth in Somewhere to Disappear

Saturday June 21, 2014
Artist Talk: Archives with Kalev Erickson

Saturday June 7, 2014
Artist Talk: Time & Place with Nicholas Muellner

Saturday May 17, 2014
Artist Talk: Social Studies with Eline Mugaas and Tina Kukielski

May 3, 2014
Artist Talk: Opening the Photobook with Melissa Catanese and Ed Panar

Catanese and Panar's other project for the Hillman Photography Initiative, A People’s History of Pittsburgh, is ongoing. An online project that invites visitors to share images from Pittsburgh’s past, select images from A People's History of Pittsburgh will contribute to a new publication slated for release in 2015. Submissions are open through December 2014.