Museum of Contemporary Photography

04/09/2025

Applications for the Snider Prize are open through Friday, June 13, 2025!

The Snider Prize is a purchase award given to emerging artists in their final year of graduate study. Each year, one recipient receives an honorarium of $3,000 with two honorable mentions, each receiving $500 in support of artistic practices while acquiring pieces into MoCP’s permanent collection.
Apply and view previous recipients here: https://bit.ly/45biy6i

The 2024 Snider Prize was awarded to Claire Warden (b. Montréal, Québec). Claire Warden is an interdisciplinary artist who works in still and moving image media. Her work engages questions of identity, representation, and language through abstraction and experimental image-making. Warden’s work resists definition as well as the hegemonic gaze and, instead, emphasizes opacity and illegibility. Warden’s work subverts the historical problematics of representation and agency in photography, particularly in addressing experiences of people of color.

Image: 2024 Snider Prize Award Recipient Claire A. Warden, Lespirit De Lescalier, 2023.

03/10/2025

Please Join us this Wednesday, March 12, at 6 p.m. for a Lecture in Photography with Regina Agu, followed by an evening of original performances from artists Luis Hernandez and Lola Ayisha Ogbara.

Multidisciplinary artist Regina Agu will present on Shore|Lines, her large-scale panoramic installation and exhibition that explores community memory within Black Midwestern lakeside communities, tracing legacies of historical migration from the Gulf South region to the Great Lakes. Using methods of photography, archival research, and oral history, her work examines waterways and natural environments as defining sites of Black life and belonging.

Lectures in Photography are co-presented with the School of Visual Arts at Columbia College Chicago.

Ferguson Lecture Hall is located on the first floor of 600 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

03/10/2025

Please Join us this Wednesday, March 12, at 6 p.m. for a Lecture in Photography with Regina Agu, followed by an evening of original performances from artists Luis Hernandez and Lola Ayisha Ogbara.

Multidisciplinary artist Regina Agu will present on Shore|Lines, her large-scale panoramic installation and exhibition that explores community memory within Black Midwestern lakeside communities, tracing legacies of historical migration from the Gulf South region to the Great Lakes. Using methods of photography, archival research, and oral history, her work examines waterways and natural environments as defining sites of Black life and belonging.

Lectures in Photography are co-presented with the School of Visual Arts at Columbia College Chicago.

Ferguson Lecture Hall is located on the first floor of 600 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

03/05/2025

02/27/2025

A huge thank you to all of this year’s DARKROOM auction artists! Your incredible talent and generosity have made this year’s collection truly amazing. We can’t wait for everyone to experience it tonight! Join us from 6:30–9 p.m. CT at 754 S. Wabash Ave. – Columbia College Chicago Student Center for an unforgettable evening of art and community. See you there!

Tickets for DARKROOM are still available for purchase at mocp.org

02/26/2025

Vivian Maier, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, and Bob Thall each provide a unique perspective on Chicago—its streets, its people, and its constantly evolving landscape. These artists illuminate the city in profound ways. Their works will be showcased at this year's DARKROOM event on Thursday, February 27!

Image 1: Vivian Maier, Chicago area, 1962; printed 2024. Courtesy of The Maloof Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery.


Image 2: SashaPhyars-Burgess, Omar at Readi Workshop, Austin, Chicago, 2019.

Image 3: Bob Thall, Chicago, 2024.


� Purchase tickets for DARKROOM: https://www.mocp.org/events/darkroom-2025/

02/24/2025

This year's DARKROOM 2025 auction will feature legendary photographers Barbara Crane, Art Shay, Jill Freedman, and Joseph Jachna; this year's selection highlights bold experimentation, raw storytelling, and masterful explorations of light and form. Join us at DARKROOM 2025 auction party on February 27 for the chance to take home one of these iconic photographic works.

Image 1: Barbra Crane, Visons of Enarc, 1986. Courtesy of Barbara B. Crane Trust


Image 2: Art Shay, Brooklyn Twins, 1952. Courtesy of Stephen Daiter Gallery.

Image 3: Jill Freedman, Fellini Nights from Circus Days, 1971. Courtesy of Stephen Daiter Gallery.


Image 4: Joseph Jachna, Slough Gundy, Wisconsin, 1967.

� Get your tickets here: https://www.mocp.org/events/darkroom-2025/

02/21/2025

Meet DARKROOM 2025 auction artists Tabitha Soren, Maggie Meiners, and Doug Fogelson, whose works push the boundaries of photography through abstraction and experimentation. Don’t miss your chance to bid on these incredible pieces at DARKROOM 2025 on February 27!
Today is the last day to see these and other auction artworks in person at DeGroot Fine Art, open 9:30 AM – 5:30 PM through Friday, February 21.

Image 1:Tabitha Soren, Gates of Paradise, 202. Courtesy of

Image 2: Maggie Meiners, 6 Minutes, 2017.

Image 3: Doug Fogelson, Signal/Noise No. 42 and No. 43, 2024.


Purchase tickets for DARKROOM 2025 here: https://bit.ly/41kFO1N

02/19/2025

We are so excited to announce Laura Letinsky, Jessica Labatte, and Melissa Leandro as part of this year’s Darkroom auction artists!

Laura Letinsky, Jessica Labatte, and Melissa Leandro each transform everyday materials and photographic processes into striking works of art. Through unique approaches to composition, texture, and light, their pieces challenge traditional perspectives on photography and image-making.
Swipe through to see their work, and don’t miss your chance to bid on these incredible pieces at DARKROOM 2025 on February 27!

To see these pieces and our other auction artworks in person, check out DeGroot Fine Art from 9:30 am - 5:30 pm through Friday, February 21

Image 1: Laura Letinsky, FreeShoppingBeat ( #24 from Who Loves the Sun series), 2023. Courtesy of


Image 2: Jessica Labatte, Sparkling V***r, 2018. Courtesy of


Image 3: Melissa Leandro, Leftovers, 2024. Courtesy of


Tickets for DARKROOM 2025 are available for purchase here: https://bit.ly/41kFO1N

02/17/2025

Here's a glimpse at some of this year's DARKROOM 2025 Auction artists!
Victoria Sambunaris, Michael Berman, and Lucas Foglia capture the beauty and complexity of landscapes through their powerful photographic work. Don't miss your chance to take home one of these pieces at this year's DARKROOM auction party on February 27.

Tickets are available here: https://bit.ly/42Ve4lB

Image 1: Victoria Sambunaris, Untitled, (canyon river view), 2023, 20 x 24

Image 2: Michael Berman, Cloud Elephant Tusk, Big Bend TX, 2020; printed 2025,17 x 22

Image 3: Lucas Foglia, Kenzie in a Crevasse, Juneau Icefield Research Program, Alaska, 2016, 28 x 44

02/12/2025

MoCP is honored to present Vera Lutter with the 2025 Silver Camera Award at DARKROOM in recognition of her groundbreaking contributions to photography. Through her innovative use of the camera obscura—Latin for "dark room"—Lutter transforms interior spaces into cameras, capturing individually unique large-scale, black-and-white negative images on light sensitive paper that reveal the world in strikingly unexpected ways.

Lutter's work spans global landmarks, from Times Square to ancient ruins in Greece, merging historical significance with contemporary vision. Her photographs have been exhibited at leading institutions worldwide, most recently at Fondazione MAST in Bologna, Italy, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She is represented internationally by Gagosian and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin.

Don't miss the opportunity to meet Vera Lutter and bid on her one-of-a-kind photograph at DARKROOM on February 27!

Image details: Vera Lutter, Hudson, Waxing Crescent, 2011, Silver gelatin print, 22 x 30.

02/09/2025

MoCP, Columbia College Chicago, and Aubin Pictures are pleased to present the Chicago screening-premier of "Meanwhile" and in-person Q&A with director Catherine Gund on February 24, 2025 at 6:30 pm at Film Row Cinema.

*This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required.
Please visit https://www.mocp.org/events/meanwhile-film-screening/ to register

MEANWHILE is a docu-poem in six verses about artists breathing through chaos. In dynamic collaboration, Jacqueline Woodson (text), Meshell Ndegeocello (soundscape), Erika Dilday (support), M. Trevino (structure), and Catherine Gund (direction), combine artists’ expressions with historical and observational footage to unveil a rare cinematic mediation about identity, race, racism and resistance as they shape our shared breath.

02/08/2025

MoCP's annual benefit auction party DARKROOM is February 27!

Tickets are on sale now.

We are thrilled to invite our photo, art, and cultural community to celebrate and support the museum alongside our co-chairs Gary Metzner and Scott Johnson, benefit committee, artists, and museum staff.

Join us as we honor artist Vera Lutter with the Silver Camera Award, present more than 40 artworks and arts experiences for auction, a bounty of food, sweets, and cocktails, rocking tunes, and most of all - photography!

Have questions about DARKROOM or MoCP? Send us a message and we'll get in touch! https://www.mocp.org/events/darkroom-2025/