History.

At the College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference in February 2015, a group of approximately twenty photo scholars met to discuss the possibility of creating a new CAA Affiliated Society. The group was to be called the North American Association for the History of Photography (NAAHOP), and was under the leadership of Douglas Nickel, Robin Kelsey, and Tanya Sheehan since 2013. For various reasons, NAAHOP did not coalesce, yet the need for a CAA Affiliated Society, and indeed the broader desire for a professional organization relating to the history and theory of photography, remained.   

At an intimate dinner hosted by Laura Wexler, following a Photographic Memory Workshop program at Yale University in March 2018, Andrés Zervigón, himself the director of a similar organization, the Developing Room at Rutgers University, and Monica Bravo reconnected regarding the lacuna. Andrés had already been in communication with University of Chicago Press regarding his idea for a new journal to be dedicated to the history and theory of photography, which might profitably relate to a professional organization. But the pair decided to begin with a more immediate need: they launched the photo-history listserv from Rutgers University in August 2018, inviting individuals from a range of institutions and countries to join them in dialogue. 

Andrés and Monica began to seed the idea for a professional organization through the listserv, eliciting thoughtful perspectives from Douglas Nickel and Jennifer Bajorek, among others, as to the nature of the organization, and especially as to whether it would be situated under the umbrella of art history or exist in a more interdisciplinary space. With these generative perspectives in mind, Andrés and Monica hosted a business meeting to assess next steps at the CAA Annual Conference in February 2019, with some forty individuals in attendance. At this meeting, it was resolved to start a professional organization whose first step would be to become a CAA Affiliated Society, though it would not be dedicated to art history alone, and its membership and interests would extend beyond North America. Eleanor Handy recalled that a similar organization had once existed in the 1970s. At this meeting, volunteers for the steering committee were solicited: Andrés Zervigón, Monica Bravo, Kate Palmer Albers, Catherine Zuromskis, Susan Laxton, and Ariel Evans came forward. Thierry Gervais also recommended a name for the organization, Photography Network, which handily expressed the newly expanded aspirations of the organization.  

The steering committee functioned from February 2019 through December 2020, making all decisions collectively, without hierarchy. First, the steering committee researched the requirements for a CAA Affiliated Society, as well as those necessary to incorporate as a 501(c)3 non-profit. At a business meeting at the CAA Annual Conference in February 2020, the steering committee presented its new bylaws, and was able to share its progress toward becoming a CAA Affiliated Society and non-profit. The organization hosted a business meeting and its first social event in Chicago, just a month before the global pandemic hit the United States. This tragedy forced many in Photography Network’s purview to pivot completely to online access for all professional activity, including teaching, mid-stream. Monica Bravo swiftly developed the website, www.photographynetwork.net, as a platform to share online resources and even recordings of lectures and conversations created by listserv subscribers, following a suggestion for resource-sharing from Jason Hill. Despite the impediments, not long after, thanks largely to Ariel Evans, Photography Network became a 501(c)3 incorporated in New Jersey. Finally, the steering committee established a bank account for the new non-profit, prepared to become a membership organization, and set about mounting a fair election to nominate and select new leadership for the organization. 

Ultimately, it was not necessary to host an election in fall 2020; elected and nominated positions were all filled by nominations and self-nominations to the board of directors. In January 2021, Photography Network officially became a member-based organization with three tiers of membership, a board of directors, and responsibilities toward its members. With the input from the CAA 2021 Annual Conference, at which the group hosted its first sponsored-session, its priorities have been to support emerging and early career artists, critics, historians of art and visual culture, archivists and curators; to grow the international ranks of its membership; and to offer virtual and live events accessible to all.