By Stephanie Robb, PRC Intern, Fall 2011

Flipping through my old family albums last month, I saw the picture of my little sister on her first day home after she was adopted, the horrific things my mother made me do to my hair in the ‘80s: an awful perm, a mullet (yes, a mullet) during my First Communion, and orange Pippi Longstocking braids (okay, that one was my choice). Also, there was a sweet family photo taken during my grandmother’s last trip to our house in Toronto at Christmastime 1980. Each of these photographs is framed in a white border, the year and the people in it labeled in my mother’s scrawl. Each one of these prints was shaken, flapping back and forth in the air, the white edge held tightly between the fingers of an excited photographer, a child, me. For each one of those special moments, at least two of us stood around the photo ogling as it developed before our eyes. It wasn’t like watching the pot – the pictures emerged quickly, and it was awesome.

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Believe me, I’m the last person who wants to rush the summer along (despite today’s oppressive heat and no home air conditioning). But having just confirmed our fall speakers I can now say that I won’t be quite so despondent after the last leaves have fallen. We have the pleasure of hosting some pretty amazing artists this fall and I wanted to share the news.

Below is the list of folks and the corresponding dates of their lectures. But please keep in mind that dates may be subject to change so always check back to prcboston.org, for the most current information.

Polaroid Spotlight Lecture featuring Barbara Crane
Thursday, October 23
The depth and breadth of work Barbara has produced is staggering. There’s not many people out there who can move so deftly between styles, materials, subjects, formats, etc., etc., as Barbara. Truly a Renaissance photographer!

Paul Fusco
Thursday, November 13
One of the great Magnum photographers, Paul Fusco has traveled the world covering the stories that have defined our generation, including Robert F. Kennedy’s assasination and subsequent funeral train procession. He’ll share pictures from that story, which are included in his new book Paul Fusco: RFK, soon to be released by Aperture. A show of this work is currently up at Danziger Projects and was recently featured in the New York Times Magazine.

Larry Fink
Thursday, December 11
Check out Fink’s current show and latest body of work, The Democrats, at Pace/MacGill Gallery. He’s applied that candid aesthetic, that we all came to know and love from his work covering black tie affairs in New York City, to the recent Democratic nomination campaign trail.

Image Credits, Top to bottom:
Barbara Crane, Santa Barbara and Refrigerator, “On the Fence” series, Tucson, Arizona, 1980, 8 x 10 inches
Paul Fusco/Magnum Photos USA. 1968, Robert KENNEDY funeral train
Larry Fink, Hillary Clinton, NC and IN, 2008. Gelatin silver print paper, 24 x 20 inches

The Polaroid Spotlight Lecture is sponsored by the Land Fund of the Polaroid Foundation

Your friendly PRC Education Manager here. When I first stepped out of the Auditorium at 6:30 last night I found myself taken aback by the site of hundreds of people waiting to enter Arno Minkkinen’s lecture. I knew how Roy Scheider must have felt when he stumbled back past Quint on the Deck of the Orca and mumbled those now famous few words, “You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat.” Well last night, for the PRC’s inaugural lecture in our Spring Lecture Series and our premiere Polaroid Spotlight Lecture, we needed a bigger auditorium.

Last night was truly a milestone in the history of the PRC. Arno was, as always, inspiring and his talk will be remembered for years to come. We are truly fortunate to have someone as genuinely kind and giving as Arno in our community. The attendance at the lecture was staggering! The demonstration of support for Arno and the PRC was humbling. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out. I also want to say how heartbroken I was that we couldn’t fit everyone into the lecture hall (including yours truly). I am happy to say, however, that we will have an audio recording of the lecture available at the PRC within a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you can listen and watch the super AV slideshow that BU Today did on Arno here.

And be sure to check out photos from the event on our flickr site, courtesy of our all-star event photographer Mike Howard.