Busch-Reisinger Museum Lecture with Olivier Lugon—Writing and Reading in the Age of Photography: László Moholy-Nagy, Typophoto, and Film
When:
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2025 6:00p -
7:30p
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2025 6:00p -
7:30p
Where:
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Accessible Spots, Art, Good for Groups, Lectures & Conferences
Event website:
https://bit.ly/47rjypP
Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is encouraged. Register here.
Renowned photo historian Olivier Lugon will speak about his recent research on artist László Moholy-Nagy.
In 1925, László Moholy-Nagy introduced a term that would become central to modern graphic design and the practice of layout: “typophoto.” The word referred to a new combination of photographic images and text interacting equally on the printed page, but it also suggested, more fundamentally, a new photographic condition of writing and reading fostered by the emergence of photocomposition. While the idea of a new photographic—and filmic—nature of written communication was shared by early proponents of screen publishing based on microfilm and filmstrip, Moholy-Nagy sought to explore the wide-ranging implications of this photographic conception of text across a variety of media, from book layout to exhibition design and film credits.
Speaker:
Olivier Lugon, Professor in the Department of Film Studies and in the Centre of History of Culture: Literature, Arts and Society, University of Lausanne
The lecture will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Doors to the hall will open for seating at 5:30pm. Please enter at Broadway.
Limited complimentary parking is available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.
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