Seeing Being Seen: A Conversation with Michelle Dunn Marsh
Join us April 20th @ 7 pm EDT via Zoom
We will be continuing our celebration of photobooks with a robust conversation with Michelle Dunn Marsh founder of Minor Matters books. Minor Matters, the Seattle-based photography book publisher, has championed many photographers over the years, collaboratively crafting their work into exceptional photobooks and exhibitions that amplify underrepresented voices in contemporary art.
We will be talking with Michelle about her newly released book Seeing Being Seen: A Personal History of Photography and her indispensable primer Reading Photographs, a simple and profound methodology for looking at and engaging with images. Additionally, we will be exploring Minor Matters’ unique and collaborative book publishing practices.
Michelle Dunn Marsh originally from Puyallup, WA, now considers both Seattle and New York City home. She believes that living with books is transformative, and everyone should try it. Ditto for driving a convertible, smelling a sterling rose, and wearing great cowboy boots.
She has experienced every aspect of the publishing process through staff positions with Aperture Foundation and Chronicle Books, and on a project basis with University of Washington Press, Museum of Glass, Heyday Books, Abbeville Press, and others. Leadership positions include Co-Publisher of Aperture magazine and Deputy Director of Aperture Foundation; Senior Editor of Art+Design, Chronicle Books; and executive director (2013–2019) and Chief Strategist (2019-2020) at Photographic Center Northwest.
Editor or designer of over 100 publications prior to starting Minor Matters, she has also curated a number of significant exhibitions, including Jim Marshall's The Rolling Stones 1972 at Experience Music Project, Seattle; Here I Am: Lisa Leone at the Bronx Museum; Eugene Richards: Enduring Freedom and Terminal: On Mortality and Beauty at PCNW, Seattle; and All Power: Visual Legacies of the Black Panther Party, which was on view in New York, Seattle, and Ellensburg, WA.
Previously a tenured professor in graphic design at Seattle Central Community College, she has lectured at Parsons/The New School, Yale University, YoungArts in Miami, The Palm Springs Photo Festival, The Seagull School for Publishing in Calcutta, and PhotoIreland, among others. She holds an MS in Publishing from Pace University in New York City, and a bachelor’s degree in literature/art history from Bard College.