WAYS OF CARING: Wed. December 18, 2019 @ Baillie Court, Art Gallery of Ontario

Unknown photographer, [Looking at Polaroids], around 1970s. Colour instant print (Polaroid SX-70), 10.8 x 8.8 cm. Purchase, with funds donated by Martha LA McCain, 2018. © Art Gallery of Ontario 2018/1113

In 2018, the AGO acquired the Fade Resistance collection, an extraordinary group of Polaroids documenting African American family life from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Assembled by Toronto artist Zun Lee over many years, these vivid images chronicle milestones such as weddings, birthdays and graduations as well as quieter daily moments, highlighting the role snapshots have played in Black life, both as tools to challenge stereotypical portrayals, and as a means to memorialize family, culture and heritage. 

In anticipation of an exhibition of these photographs in 2021, Lee will lead a round-table conversation, examining the question of what it means to hold this collection in this city today, in a museum like the AGO, and the wider place of institutions in caring for collections of personal photographs. Participants include Deanna Bowen, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Dr. Stefano Harney, Dr. Fred Moten and Dr. Christina Sharpe. The first of three events, Ways of Caring is multi-year initiative to activate the collection and to engage a range of publics in Toronto. 

“I’m grateful that this collection has found a committed custodian in the AGO, preserving images that offer a testament to Black visual self-representation,” says Lee. “For years, these images have served as conversation starters for people to come together and share their personal stories. I look forward to working with the AGO to engage old and new audiences in offering their own take on what it means to be seen."