June 7 & 8, 2025
10am-5pm

Limited to 10 participants
Registration opens: April 1
Registration closes: May 30 or when filled

Artist Juan Brenner knows first-hand the challenges of editing and sequencing books and exhibitions from longform projects. Often working on projects for several years, and shooting hundreds of images, Brenner has published two books and held over 10 exhibitions from his longform work. His first monograph, Tonatiuh, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation First Photobook Award, was created from a pool of 300 images taken over 2 years. His second book, Genesis, published in 2024 by Guest Editions, started as 300 rolls of film, over 1,000 images, before it reached its publication size of 250 images.

During the making of Tonatiuh, Genesis, and subsequent projects, Brenner honed his skills at:

* Deciding when a project is ready to edit
* Identifying considerations for specific formats — book, exhibition, and online gallery
* Organizing an archive
* Understanding how image selection and sequence work together
* Giving your edits time to evolve
* Working with editors, curators, and designers
* Publishing your project (steps and examples)

Over this two session workshop, Juan Brenner will share his experience in wrangling longform projects into manageable shape for publishing and exhibition opportunities. In the first session, Juan will share the process he used to edit, sequence, and publish his first two books, with an emphasis on the process for Genesis, and including a look at the book dummies for Tonatiuh and how they evolved. Also in the first session, Brenner and Aurora PhotoCenter’s Mary Goodwin will discuss how they curated the exhibition Genesis, on view in Aurora’s Main Gallery during the workshop. In the second session, participants will get hands-on by editing their projects with Juan and the group. By the end of the workshop, each participant will have a first-draft edit of their book or exhibition project. Along the way, participants will gain insight into how longterm photographic projects are developed by the artist, and how he turned his work into successful career opportunities.

After registration, we will contact you to get a sense of your project and goals for the workshop. Each participant will bring a set of no more than 100 images from one project, preferably as 4 x 6 work prints, to edit with the workshop.

For more information and to register, click here.

June 6 First Friday marks the start of Aurora’s Summer exhibition season with two new shows in both our Main Gallery and Efroysmon Gallery.

Juan Brenner’s series Genesis is filled with the beauty, aspiration, sanctity, and desire of the Guatemalan Highlands, where Brenner lives and works. In his images, as in the Highlands, traditional codes of power intermingle with a vibrant and vital youth culture, which mixes the ancient dress trajé with heavy metal t-shirts, ornate teeth art, and the ubiquitous cell phone. Published as a book in 2024 by Guest Editions, the large-scale prints in this exhibition of Genesis distill the grit, glamour, and always gold of the Highlands.

Brenner writes of his work: “For the last 5 years most of my work has been focused on understanding the complex phenomena pertaining to a very particular and important territory known as the Guatemalan Highlands. Starting from the Spanish invasion of Guatemala in the 16th century and its repercussions, then going through the imposed obscurantism that subdued and crushed the local reigns and finally a new colonial system that shifted the power balance in favor of the invaders, I've been garnering many ideas that have become key ingredients in my subject of research.

Genesis will be on view in Aurora’s Main Gallery until August 15.

Opening in Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery, The Whole Preposterous Ideology features beautiful, layered, multi-media work by artist Leni Mae Wiegand, who uses photographic light boxes, paper scrolls, and electronics-based sculpture to evoke the digital realm as a safe space for exploration of gender and personal identity. Wiegand writes of their work: “Queer bodies, particularly trans bodies, are often labeled as something to be "fixed" — entities in a state of error, a glitch. However, glitches aren't inherently negative; they possess power against systems expecting certain outcomes and strength in defying those systems. By embodying ourselves through digital existence and the safety that digital spaces provide, we can resist growing transphobia in the United States and transcend laws seeking to strip away our rights. By embracing the label of glitch, we create digital havens — vital places for exploring gender expression and personal identity without fear of punishment. Through the safety they provide, digital realities often become more important and vibrant than our AFK (away from keyboard) existence.”

The Whole Preposterous Ideology will be on view through July 18.

May 22, 6-9pm
Limited to 3 participants
Registration closes May 20 or when filled

Non-Members: $100
Aurora Members: Free, registration required, email to reserve your spot

More and more, photographers who shoot color film are opting to develop their own film rather than spending the time, energy, and money to send it off to a lab. Developing color film is a whole other world from developing black & white film, with different chemistry, techniques, and concerns. If you’ve developed color film before, this workshop is a great refresher on technique and will show you how to maximize the tools in Aurora’s darkroom. If this is your first time, or if you’ve only watched a couple videos online, the small size of this workshop makes it ideal for asking questions and getting comfortable with the process.

Please note: This workshop is for 35mm and 120mm color film only. 

Covered in the workshop:

* Loading film correctly onto plastic or metal reels
* Mixing color chemistry for success
* Knowing the importance of timing, temperature, and agitation
* Reading your negatives to select frames for printing
* Proper care, storage, and handling of negatives

All chemistry and equipment are included in the price of the workshop. During the workshop, you will develop one roll of 35mm and 120mm color film, dry it, and store it in a plastic negative sleeve ready to scan.

This workshop will be taught by Carlos Perez. Aurora’s 2024 intern, Carlos is a Senior at Ball State University, where he will complete a BA in Photography with a minor in Computer Information Technology.

May 17, 1-4pm, workshop
May 18, 1-4pm, optional work session

Limited to 3 participants
Registration closes May 14 or when filled

Non-Members: $100
Aurora Members: Free, registration required, email to reserve your spot

If you’ve made a black & white print before, this workshop is a great refresher on technique and will show you how to maximize the tools in Aurora’s darkroom. If this is your first time, or if you’ve only watched a couple videos online, the small size of this workshop makes it ideal for asking questions and getting comfortable with the process.

Covered in the workshop:

* Selecting negatives to print
* Operating the enlarger, easel, grain focuser and other equipment
* Making a test strip
* Proper technique with the chemistry and washing
* Proper care, storage, and handling of prints

All chemistry, paper, and equipment are included in the price of the workshop. During the workshop, you will create 1-3 prints, and you can use the optional work session to make additional prints.

Visit our Workshops page at www.auroraphoto.org to learn more about this and our other workshop offerings.

May 10, 1-4pm

Limited to 3 participants
Registration closes May 7 or when filled

Non-Members: $100
Aurora Members: Free, registration required, email to reserve your spot

Even if you’ve developed black & white film before, this workshop is a great refresher on technique and will show you how to maximize the tools in Aurora’s darkroom. If this is your first time, or if you’ve only watched a couple videos online, the small size of this workshop makes it ideal for asking questions and getting comfortable with the process.

Covered in the workshop:

* Loading film correctly onto plastic or metal reels
* Mixing black & white chemistry properly
* Learning the importance of timing, temperature, and agitation
* Reading your negatives to select frames for printing
* Proper care, storage, and handling of negatives

Read more about the workshop, and register to attend by clicking here.

In conjunction with the exhibition Heart’s Content, Herron School of Art & Design senior Leah Darden will host a viewing of her short film, I Define Me, on May 8, 6pm, at Aurora PhotoCenter. Darden writes of the work, “I Define Me is an autobiography styled film showcasing my personal journey in my young adulthood and highlighting black excellence.” After the video (15 minutes run time), Darden will be joined by Chris Smith of 1000 Words Gallery and Indianapolis artist Zola Lamothe for a conversation about some major themes of the film, including, as Darden explains, “Inspiration to other peoples of color and marginalized individuals to pursue their dreams and aspirations without fear of outcomes society may put onto us.”

Leah Darden is a photographer and visual arts creator from Indianapolis, Indiana. Much of the work Leah creates comes from a place of aiming to inspire others to connect with nature, themselves, and their community. Though her work focuses on nature photography, her work also explores being an advocate for her culture and familial history, gratitude of life, and nostalgia.

Chris Smith is a photographer and community leader committed to empowering others through art and inspiring them to share their unique perspectives with the world. His work focuses on capturing the ethereal beauty of nature, reflecting a deep appreciation for its tranquility and abundance. Through his art, Chris aims to connect with others, fostering creativity and growth within artistic communities. As the Executive Director of 1000 Words Gallery in Indianapolis, Indiana, Chris mentors emerging artists, equipping them with the resources and opportunities needed to thrive in the local arts economy.

Zola Lamothe was a 2023 recipient of the Power Plant Grant, a grant run by Big Car Collaborative and funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Her series Unveiling a Forgotten Legacy was exhibited at 1000 Words Gallery and Madam Walker Legacy Center in 2024, and at Aurora PhotoCenter in 2025.

Please join us at Aurora for First Friday’s opening of the exhibition Heart’s Content in the Main Gallery. The exhibition Heart’s Content, with work by the 2025 BFA Photography Seniors from the Herron School of Art & Design at IU Indianapolis, explores photography’s relationship to identity through a range of processes and media, including photographic collage, lenticular, cyanotype, weaving, and video. Using photography to examine the many factors that influence and shape identity, the artists ask us to take a deeper look at what we think we know about ourselves. Through their work, Leah Darden, Kayla Harvey, Sarah Montañez-Hidalgo, Sarah McCartney, Emma Seewald, Dee Smith, and Michelle Watson, share a key part of being an artist — that the questions we ask are oftentimes more important than the answers. The artists will be present in the gallery for the opening and will give brief talks about their work starting at 6pm. To May 16.

In Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery, Savannah Calhoun mines 80s and 90s pop culture to evoke an uneasy sense of nostalgia in her series Meta Specter. Bright gradients, checkerboard patterns, palm trees straight from the set of Miami Vice, and compact disks float across the glossy surface of Calhoun’s large-scale collages and photo murals. These blasts from the past recall a supposedly simpler time, one lived by some and seen by others in Stranger Things, a time without cell phones and ubiquitous screens. Using color and lighting from commercial product photography, Calhoun’s Meta Specter resonates with America’s current moment and rhetoric that sells an idealized version of the Reagan Era as a political and cultural ideal, ignoring the injustices and unrest of the time. Meta Specter reminds us that escaping the echo chamber of nostalgia and technology might be the most important disruption of our time, one that gets us back to a better future. To May 16.

April 26, 1-4pm
Limited to 3 participants
Registration closes April 23 or when filled

Non-Members: $100
Aurora Members: Free, registration required, email to reserve your spot

More and more, photographers who shoot color film are opting to develop their own film rather than spending the time, energy, and money to send it off to a lab. Developing color film is a whole other world from developing black & white film, with different chemistry, techniques, and concerns. If you’ve developed color film before, this workshop is a great refresher on technique and will show you how to maximize the tools in Aurora’s darkroom. If this is your first time, or if you’ve only watched a couple videos online, the small size of this workshop makes it ideal for asking questions and getting comfortable with the process.

Please note: This workshop is for 35mm and 120mm C41 color film only. 

Covered in the workshop:

* Loading film correctly onto plastic or metal reels
* Mixing color chemistry for success
* Knowing the importance of timing, temperature, and agitation
* Reading your negatives to select frames for printing
* Proper care, storage, and handling of negatives

All chemistry and equipment are included in the price of the workshop. During the workshop, you will develop one roll of 35mm and 120mm color film, dry it, and store it in a plastic negative sleeve ready to scan.

Click HERE to register for this session.

April 20, 1-4pm

Non-Members: $100
Aurora Members: Free, registration required, email to reserve your spot
Registration closes April 17 or when filled

If you’ve made a black & white print before, this workshop is a great refresher on technique and will show you how to maximize the tools in Aurora’s darkroom. If this is your first time, or if you’ve only watched a couple videos online, the small size of this workshop makes it ideal for asking questions and getting comfortable with the process.

Covered in the workshop:

* Selecting negatives to print
* Operating the enlarger, easel, grain focuser and other equipment
* Making a test strip
* Proper technique with the chemistry and washing
* Proper care, storage, and handling of prints

All chemistry, paper, and equipment are included in the price of the workshop. During the workshop, you will create 1-3 prints, and you can use the optional work session to make additional prints.

Visit our Workshops page at www.auroraphoto.org to learn more about this and our other workshop offerings.

Please join us for a special edition of our popular photobook share, featuring books by the 2025 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize finalists. This prestigious prize is awarded yearly to recognize excellence and innovation in photography.

We will look at the following books by the four 2025 finalists:

* Journey to the Center (Editorial RM, 2024), by Cristina De Middel
* Hardtack (Loose Joints, 2024), by Rahim Fortune
* RePose (Fw:Books, 2024), by Tarrah Krajnak
* I carry Her photo with Me (MACK, 2024), by Lindokuhle Sobekwa

You can read all about the finalists at the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize website. The winner will be announced May 15, 2025.

Also bring your new favorite books to share with the group!

In Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery starting April 4, Savannah Calhoun mines 80s and 90s pop culture to evoke an uneasy sense of nostalgia in her series Meta Specter. Bright gradients, checkerboard patterns, palm trees straight from the set of Miami Vice, and compact disks float across the glossy surface of Calhoun’s large-scale collages and photo murals. These blasts from the past recall a supposedly simpler time, one lived by some and seen by others in Stranger Things, a time without cell phones and ubiquitous screens. Using color and lighting from commercial product photography, Calhoun’s Meta Specter resonates with America’s current moment and rhetoric that sells an idealized version of the Reagan Era as a political and cultural ideal, ignoring the injustices and unrest of the time. Meta Specter reminds us that escaping the echo chamber of nostalgia and technology might be the most important disruption of our time, one that gets us back to a better future.

In the Main Gallery, the exhibition Trained Histories, featuring work by Minne Atairu, Michael Borowski, Jim Naughten, and Phillip Toledano, examines the intersection of history and AI, revealing how AI can investigate, give visibility to, and reimagine various histories while questioning the very nature of truth in photography. In Aurora’s Main Gallery until April 15.

Aurora’s Spring exhibitions, Trained Histories and Unveiling a Forgotten Legacy, look at the concept of history through photography. Come join us on March 7, 6-9pm, to explore the exhibitions.

In the Main Gallery, the exhibition Trained Histories, featuring work by Minne Atairu, Michael Borowski, Jim Naughten, and Phillip Toledano, examines the intersection of history and AI, revealing how AI can investigate, give visibility to, and reimagine various histories while questioning the very nature of truth in photography.

Minne Atairu’s series, AI-Restored Benin Bronzes, uses AI to fill in the gaps of the visual record, suggesting a time when repatriation will unite these important works with a perfected future. In The Wooden Beaver Archive, Michael Borowski gives form to the missing history of mineral springs and urban bath houses as sites for queer desire, using AI to underscore the power of representation. Jim Naughten combines original photography and AI to picture animals that once roamed the Scottish Highlands but have since gone extinct, drawing urgent attention to our world’s disappearing biodiversity. We Are at War, by Phillip Toledano, imagines one of Robert Capa’s lost rolls of film from D-Day, demonstrating how convincing AI-generated images can be, with deep implications for the present and future of the medium.

In Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery, Zola Lamothe’s series Unveiling a Forgotten Legacy recreates intimate family scenes where homes, churches, and livelihoods once stood — right on the land that became the Indiana University, Indianapolis campus. Her work honors Indianapolis’ past while confronting the effects of gentrification. In addition to collective portraits of the Moore and Temple Families, the installation of Lamothe’s exhibition at Aurora also features a history of the land, presented in a timeline format, to provide context to the exhibition. The exhibition closes March 15.

February 22, 1-4pm
February 23, 1-4pm optional work session

Registration closes February 19 or when filled

Take your film scanning skills to new heights with this interactive workshop focused on fluid mounting. Perfect for photographers, artists, and archivists, fluid mounting enhances scans with unmatched sharpness, richer tonal depth, and a flawless surface free from dust, scratches, and Newton rings. Whether working with 35mm, medium, or large format negatives, this technique unlocks the full potential of your film, delivering scans ready for exhibition printing or archival preservation.

Through step-by-step guidance, you’ll learn why fluid mounting outperforms traditional dry scanning methods and how to prepare your film, apply mounting fluid, and secure it to the scanner bed. You’ll also delve into advanced scanning software settings to maximize resolution, tonal range, and detail, ensuring your final images meet the highest standards of quality.

This workshop addresses common challenges, offering troubleshooting tips to help you achieve consistent, flawless results. Bring your own negatives to tailor the experience to your work and leave equipped with the expertise and confidence to transform your analog images into stunning digital masterpieces.

Read more about the workshop, and register to attend, by clicking here.

After a brief hiatus, the Thursday Night Photobook Throwdown is back in fulll force! For the first Throwdown 0f 2025, bring your newest photobook, or the one you’ve recently fallen in love with again, for an evening of sharing, conversation, and appreciation for this format for photography that is an art form in and onto itself!

Don’t have a book in mind to share? Not to worry — you can also comb through Aurora’s photobook library of over 300 titles for a wildcard if you’re feeling lucky that night.

We will start at the tables in the Aurora PhotoCenter Gallery, Suite C9, and then migrate down to a close-by watering hole when the mood strikes us or 7pm, whichever comes first!

February 16, 1-4pm
Registration closes February 13 or when filled

Even if you’ve developed black & white film before, this workshop is a great refresher on technique and will show you how to maximize the tools in Aurora’s darkroom. If this is your first time, or if you’ve only watched a couple videos online, the small size of this workshop makes it ideal for asking questions and getting comfortable with the process.

Covered in the workshop:

* Loading film correctly onto plastic or metal reels
* Mixing black & white chemistry properly
* Learning the importance of timing, temperature, and agitation
* Reading your negatives to select frames for printing
* Proper care, storage, and handling of negatives

Read more about the workshop, and register to attend by clicking here.

February 8, 1-4pm, workshop
February 9, 1-4pm, optional work session

Registration closes February 5 or when filled

Salt printing is a silver nitrate based contact printing method invented by Henry Fox Talbot in the mid-1830s. The process produces a beautiful range of earth tones, including black, sepia, and brown, often with a soft, atmospheric, romantic look. Salt printing is a wonderful way to explore the history of photography and to add new dimensions of creativity to your images.

Salt prints are very simple and economical to make, with even ordinary table salt sufficient to provide the necessary sodium chloride. Images are converted into digital negatives, using an inkjet printer on transparency film, then contact printed with UV light, and then developed/fixed.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Trained Histories, artist Michael Borowski will lead this workshop on salt printing, touching on all the basics you need to start exploring and creating with the process.

Read more about the workshop, and register to attend, by clicking here.

February First Friday at Aurora is very special, with the opening of two new exhibitions and the reopening of our renovated darkroom! Please join us February 7, 6-9pm to celebrate and enjoy what’s new at Aurora.

In the Main Gallery, the exhibition Trained Histories, featuring work by Minne Atairu, Michael Borowski, Jim Naughten, and Phillip Toledano, looks at the intersection of history and AI, exploring how AI can investigate, give visibility to, and reimagine various histories while questioning the very nature of truth in photography.

Minne Atairu’s series, AI-Restored Benin Bronzes, uses AI to fill in the gaps of the visual record, suggesting a time when repatriation will unite these important works with a perfected future. In The Wooden Beaver Archive, Michael Borowski gives form to the missing history of mineral springs and urban bath houses as sites for queer desire, using AI to underscore the power of representation. Jim Naughten combines original photography and AI to picture animals that once roamed the Scottish Highlands but have since gone extinct, drawing urgent attention to our world’s disappearing biodiversity. We Are at War, by Phillip Toledano, imagines one of Robert Capa’s lost rolls of film from D-Day, demonstrating how convincing AI-generated images can be, with deep implications for the present and future of the medium.

Also opening February 7, Zola Lamothe’s series Unveiling a Forgotten Legacy recreates intimate family scenes where homes, churches, and livelihoods once stood — right on the land that became the Indiana University, Indianapolis campus. Her work honors Indianapolis’ past while confronting the effects of gentrification. In addition to collective portraits of the Moore and Temple Families, the installation of Lamothe’s exhibition at Aurora also features a history of the land, presented in a timeline format, to provide context to the exhibition.

Aurora’s darkroom has undergone a transformation during the last month, doubling its size and adding three new enlargers, a new sink and water system, and improved ventilation, among other additions. Come see the new space!

Join us for First Friday in December! In Aurora’s Main Gallery until December 15
: Jessica Hays started photographing wildfires after a fire burned the foothills of her hometown in Montana in 2020. Since then, Hays has traveled the American Southwest to create the series The Sun Sets Midafternoon, which captures the state of solastalgia, an emotional and existential distress caused by negative environmental change. The exhibition combines immersive, floor-to-ceiling mural prints of fire clouds, large-scale framed photographs of fires, and the artist’s written word to deliver an urgent reminder of our world’s fragility.

In Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery, ESX/COCA featuring work by Alexandra McNichols-Torroledo in Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery. Over the last decade, Colombian-born photographer Alexandra McNichols-Torroledo has focused her work on the indigenous communities of North and South America who protect sacred plants, water, and the rainforest. The exhibition ESX/COCA presents images that McNichols-Torroledo made at the Wasak Kwewesx School in the Nasa indigenous reservation of Toribio, Cauca, Colombia.

Also on view at Aurora in December are the five prints that make up Aurora’s 2024 Fine Print Program, with limited-edition prints by Tsar Fedorsky, Juan Brenner, Chris Newell, Zola Lamothe, and Jay van Santen, each print $100. The Aurora Fine Print Program is the perfect way to start or add to your photographic print collection — and to give the perfect gift! The proceeds from your print purchase go directly into Aurora’s nonprofit mission to support visual artists working in photography through exhibitions, residencies, workshops, artist talks, and access to creative tools. 

Discover Photograms
Free and open to the public

Photograms are a kind of camera-less photography made in the darkroom in which you place objects directly on a piece of photographic paper and then expose the composition to the enlarger light. The result is a black-and-white image in which solid objects appear white and translucent objects and materials appear in an almost “x-ray” effect caused by light shining through. The contours of the objects are rendered in sharp shapes and lines, sometimes ultra-realistically.

Photograms are a great introduction to photography and the darkroom - if you don’t like your first attempt, just try another one! In this open session, we will have sheets of 8 x 10 paper, chemistry, and a variety of objects on site to start your compositions; feel free to bring your own objects and materials, keeping in mind that darkroom chemistry can stain. Working space is limited in the darkroom, so a max of three people can work on one picture at a time.

This photograph open session is free and open to the public. This activity is best suited for artists age 7+; minors must be accompanied by an adult.

Photogram by Lisa Pelo

DeBoest Lecture Hall
Newfields
Free, tickets required

Join Colombian-born, American photographer Alexandra McNichols-Torroledo for a discussion about her exhibition, ESX/COCA. Torroledo has dedicated the last decade to focusing on Indigenous communities in North and South America that protect sacred plants, water, and the rainforest. The exhibition, titled ESX/COCA showcases powerful images taken at the Wasak Kwewesx School in the Nasa Indigenous reservation of Toribio, Cauca, Colombia. 

McNichols-Torroledo aims to deconstruct colonial and postcolonial visual narratives surrounding the coca plant through her work with the Indigenous people of the Andes.  

Following the lecture, there will be a question-and-answer session for guests to ask about her artistic process and work.  

The lecture is free, but registration and tickets are required. Click here to register and get free tickets for the lecture.

Join us for First Friday in November, when we will open the exhibition ESX/COCA featuring work by Alexandra McNichols-Torroledo in Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery. Over the last decade, Colombian-born photographer Alexandra McNichols-Torroledo has focused her work on the indigenous communities of North and South America who protect sacred plants, water, and the rainforest. The exhibition ESX/COCA presents images that McNichols-Torroledo made at the Wasak Kwewesx School in the Nasa indigenous reservation of Toribio, Cauca, Colombia.

At the school, Nasa children are educated in the medicinal ancient rites of the coca plant and their relation to weaving and spinning practices done with the cabuya plant. Cabuya fiber is considered by the Nasa people “the hair of mother earth,” and it is as sacred to the Nasa as the coca plant. Classes at the Wasak Kwewesx School are led by a traditional doctor called ‘the Wala’ who educates children to become traditional doctors, midwives, and cultural leaders to ensure continuity of the Nasa culture.

The beautiful prints in ESX/COCA were made using the platinum-palladium process, a contact printing process originating from the 1870s. This exhibition will be on view in Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery until December 15.

In Aurora’s Main Gallery until December 15
: Jessica Hays started photographing wildfires after a fire burned the foothills of her hometown in Montana in 2020. Since then, Hays has traveled the American Southwest to create the series The Sun Sets Midafternoon, which captures the state of solastalgia, an emotional and existential distress caused by negative environmental change. The exhibition combines immersive, floor-to-ceiling mural prints of fire clouds, large-scale framed photographs of fires, and the artist’s written word to deliver an urgent reminder of our world’s fragility. 

Please note that this Throwdown has been rescheduled. It was previously scheduled for September 26.

Thursday Night Photobook Throwdown
Free and open to the public

For the September Thursday Night Photobook Throwdown, bring your newest photobook, or the one you’ve recently fallen in love with again, for an evening of sharing, conversation, and appreciation for this format for photography that is an art form in and onto itself!

Don’t have a book in mind to share? Not to worry — you can also comb through Aurora’s photobook library of over 300 titles for a wildcard if you’re feeling lucky that night.

We will start at the tables in the Aurora PhotoCenter Gallery, Suite C9, and then migrate down to a close-by watering hole when the mood strikes us or 7pm, whichever comes first!

Please join us for an online artist talk featuring 2023 Aurora + Herron Resident Priya Kambli. In August 2023, Kambli spent the two weeks of her residency in the Herron School of Art + Design darkrooms creating large-scale prints for two series, An Inventory of the Objects of Mourning and Objects of Mourning: Still-Life. In this talk, Kambli will discuss these series, her ongoing project Devhara, and the role of residencies in her practice. At the end of the presentation, the audience will have the chance to ask Kambli questions and her work and residency.

To join from computer or mobile: 
https://iu.zoom.us/j/88308552450

Meeting ID: 883 0855 2450

To make the prints in An Inventory of the Objects of Mourning and Objects of Mourning: Still-Life, the artist combined the use of two photographic processes, photogram and lumen, which abstracts the objects into their contour lines and shapes. Both An Inventory of the Objects of Mourning and Objects of Mourning: Still-Life are from the artists’s larger, ongoing project, Devhara, about which Kambli writes:

Devhara (which loosely translates to “house of idols” in my native language of Marathi) is a multi-disciplinary body of work that weaves together three generations of women: my mother, my daughter, and myself. And it grapples with how my work can or should reflect my migrant identity. I investigate these topics through my mother’s objects of worship, which are imbued with political realities and tangible memories and which to me have become objects of mourning. I explore the resonance of these items from my mother’s home altar as significant forms while inserting our bodies (my daughter’s and mine) to create abstract images/meditations/visual prayers. This body of work continues my effort to think about themes of identity, migration, and loss as catalysts for dialogue and the forging of cross-cultural understanding as well as its reflection on the broader cultural context.

Kambli’s work inadvertently examines the question asked by her son Kavi at age three; did she belong to two different worlds, since she spoke two different languages? The essence of his question continues to be a driving force in her art making. In her work, Kambli strives to understand the formation and erasure of identity that is an inevitable part of the migrant experience.

Kambli’s artwork has been well received, having been exhibited, published, collected and reviewed in the national and international photographic community. She was the winner of the inaugural Creator Labs Photo Fund by Aperture and Google, and The Magenta Foundation’s Un-Stuck grant. The success of Kambli’s work underlines the fact that she is engaged in an important dialogue, and reinforces her intent to make work driven by a growing awareness of the importance of many voices from diverse perspectives and the political relevance of our private struggles.

Priya Kambli (priyakambli.com) received her BFA at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette and an MFA from the University of Houston. She is currently Professor of Art at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. She also serves on the Board of Society for Photographic Education.

In the galleries for October First Friday, Aurora’s Fall exhibitions explore humanity’s relationship to the land that sustains us physically, culturally, and spiritually. 



Jessica Hays started photographing wildfires after a fire burned the foothills of her hometown in Montana in 2020. Since then, Hays has traveled the American Southwest to create the series The Sun Sets Midafternoon, which captures the state of solastalgia, an emotional and existential distress caused by negative environmental change. The exhibition combines immersive, floor-to-ceiling mural prints of fire clouds, large-scale framed photographs of fires, and the artist’s written word to deliver an urgent reminder of our world’s fragility. In Aurora’s Main Gallery until December 15.



The exhibition Timbered Virtue, featuring work by artist and educator Lamar Richcreek (1947-2018), explores changes in American rural life and family farms, as seen through adult eyes and childhood memories. In Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery, the exhibition celebrates Richcreek’s thought-provoking images as well as his life modeling values of lifelong learning, the power of the arts, and the importance of integrity and respect for all. The exhibition Timbered Virtue will be accompanied by an essay written by celebrated photographic artist Linda Adele Goodine, who was Richcreek’s mentor, colleague at Herron School of Art and Design, and close friend. In Aurora’s Efroymson Gallery until October 15.

Please email us at info@auroraphoto.org to arrange a group tour or visit to these two exceptional exhibitions.

If you’re in the Indianapolis area, make sure not to miss the chance to see Rebecca Norris Webb’s exhibition, Night Calls, at University of Indianapolis through October 25, with an artist reception October 3, 4-6pm. The following night, Friday, October 4, 6pm, frequent collaborators Rebecca Norris Webb and Alex Webb will give the lecture, Two Looks, about their work solo and together. A Q&A and book signing will follow the lecture.

Both the artist reception and lecture are free and open to the public, with an rsvp requested for the lecture. For more information and to rsvp, visit news.uindy.edu.

Poet and photographer Rebecca Norris Webb and Magnum photographer Alex Webb have published more than 20 books together and apart. In the Two Looks Lecture, the creative couple will show a selection of work from both their individual and collaborative projects, including their first joint Radius book, Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba, Alex’s recent Aperture book, Dislocations, and Rebecca’s University of Indianapolis exhibition and accompanying Radius book, Night Calls, in which she retraced the route of some of her 100-plus-year-old doctor father’s house calls through the same rural county where they both were born—Rush County, Indiana.

Join us for an evening of talking film, shooting film, getting to know other film photographers, plus enjoying some great brews at Metazoa!

Roberts Distributors and some of the most incredible film manufacturers will be in Indy for this first-of-its-kind film meet-up that will bring together the Midwest's amazing flim photography community and the top film experts in the industry. Talk with representatives from Ilford Photo, Harmon Photo, Kodak, Pentax, Cinestill, Film Photography Project, Flic Flim and more!

And, if on top of all that, Pentax will be giving away a new Pentax 17 Film Camera and there will be lots of swag. Grab free swag and enter more great giveaways during this event, too.

See you there!

Discover Photograms
Free and open to the public

Photograms are a kind of camera-less photography made in the darkroom in which you place objects directly on a piece of photographic paper and then expose the composition to the enlarger light. The result is a black-and-white image in which solid objects appear white and translucent objects and materials appear in an almost “x-ray” effect caused by light shining through. The contours of the objects are rendered in sharp shapes and lines, sometimes ultra-realistically.

Photograms are a great introduction to photography and the darkroom - if you don’t like your first attempt, just try another one! In this open session, we will have sheets of 8 x 10 paper, chemistry, and a variety of objects on site to start your compositions; feel free to bring your own objects and materials, keeping in mind that darkroom chemistry can stain. Working space is limited in the darkroom, so a max of three people can work on one picture at a time.

This photograph open session is free and open to the public. This activity is best suited for artists age 7+; minors must be accompanied by an adult.

Aurora with SPARK Monument Circle
Free and open to the public

SPARK, the pop-up park on Indy’s Monument Circle, is the downtown place to meet, enjoy the beautiful weather and people, and create. Aurora will be at the SPARK art kiosk close to the info booth in the middle of the park. This will be the last of Aurora’s Cyanotype on the Circle events of the season!

Cyanotype is a camera-less photography made out in the sun, rather than in a darkroom. You place objects — such as plants — on top of a piece of photo-treated paper, and then use the sun to expose the paper. The result is an image that is an exact outline of the object. It’s a fun and magical way to engage photography! Although it may be new to modern people, cyanotype has been around since photography was invented in the 1800s.

Come explore the creative possibilities of this fascinating process. We will have some objects on hand to experiment with, but feel free to bring your own. Flat items usually work best, and cyanotype can be messy, so precious things like family heirlooms should probably stay at home. All other necessary materials will be provided free at the workshop.

This activity is best suited for artists 7+ years old; minors must be accompanied by an adult.

In conjunction with the Aurora PhotoCenter exhibition, The Sun Sets Midafternoon, Jessica Hays will give a presentation on Saturday, September 7, at 1pm, to talk about handmade books and their place in her practice. Participants will get the opportunity to view Hays’s book, Horizon Line, a monumentally-scaled handmade artist book that opens to 12 x 60 inches and is rarely exhibited.

Hays will also give a demo on the Japanese stab binding technique as part of the event, and participants will get hands-on by binding a small booklet using the process.

This presentation is free and open to the public, no registration required.