Ken Gonzales-Day presents the 13th annual Keynote Lecture for the Medium Festival of Photography on March 22, 2025 at Bread & Salt in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood. The Keynote Lecture headlines the Medium Festival as a signature event in our annual programming and is part of a full weekend of programming for photography in San Diego and Tijuana.
Ken Gonzales-Day’s conceptually grounded photographic projects consider the history of photography, the construction of race, and the limits of representational systems. As an artist and writer, Ken Gonzales-Day examines issues related to slavery, colonialism, and imperialism as seen through historic depictions of non-white populations. Collectively, his photographic work expands an art historical dialogue, giving voice to populations who have been marginalized, unseen, or erased from historical narratives. During his talk Gonzales-Day will provide an overview of several of his projects and will allow time for questions from our in-person audience.
We are honored to share space with Ken Gonzales-Day for the Medium Festival of Photography. As U.S. residents experience one of the most divisive chapters in recent American history, his work reminds us about the power of visual art and the importance of the photograph as record.
Installation view, Vincent Price MuseumAbout Ken Gonzales-Day
Ken Gonzales-Day is a Los Angeles based artist whose interdisciplinary practice considers the historical construction of race and the limits of representational systems ranging from lynching photographs to educational museum displays. His widely exhibited Erased Lynching series, along with the publication of Lynching in the West: 1850-1935 (Duke University Press, 2006) transformed the understanding of racialized violence in the United States and raised awareness of the lynching of Latinos, Native Americans, Asians, and African-Americans in California, and helped to ground this history within the larger discussion of policing, migration, and racial justice.
Gonzales-Day is a Getty scholar and a Terra Foundation and Smithsonian Museum fellow. In 2017, Gonzales-Day received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography. In 2018, he was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Registration for the 2025 Festival is open!
The 2025 Medium Festival of Photography is open free to the public and includes special benefits with all ticketed passes. Why would I want to pay for registration when you can attend the festival for free? The #1 reason is to purchase a ticket is that you’re supporting a vital non-profit organization dedicated to photography. To make the decision easier, we loaded the ticketed options with perks, and we offer discounts on Festival Passes to full time students.
If registration is a financial hardship please contact us at info@mediumphoto.org, we have FREE Festival Passes available on request. Email info@mediumphoto.org to reserve a free Festival Pass.
Medium Photo members receive discounts on all Festival and VIP passes. We are offering 2-for-1 deals for the first five VIP Passes and the first ten Festival Passes sold.