Learn exactly what an SFMOMA photography curator looks for, what she passes over, and how to get your work seen without an MFA, a gallery, or a 6-paragraph artist statement.

I sat down with Shana Lopes, Assistant Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), to find out how photography actually enters a museum collection. Shana has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Center for Creative Photography, holds a PhD in the history of photography, and has spent over 7 years at SFMOMA curating exhibitions, acquiring work, and reviewing portfolios.

We talked about how a curator decides which photographs get remembered, why she needs to be able to write about your work before she can acquire it, the one question every photography project has to answer, and the practical advice she gives emerging photographers trying to get exhibited, published, or noticed.

Other things we discussed:

• What a curator actually does day to day, from wall texts to installation choreography
• Why she thinks about exhibition layouts musically
• Curating photobooks versus curating walls, and why she reads books from the back
• Trends in museum photography, and whether documentary is disappearing
• How to write an artist statement a jury will actually read
• Portfolio reviews: what to bring, what not to say, and when to come back
• Why an MFA isn't necessary but a community is
• AI, analog revival, and the art schools closing in San Francisco

Find Shana on the SFMOMA website and Instagram:
https://www.sfmoma.org/about/eteam-curatorial-staff/
https://www.instagram.com/lopesshana/

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