Event-Preregistered

The Griffin Museum is pleased to host an online conversation with artist, photographer, researcher, and former environmental lawyer Virginia McGee Richards, joined by James Estrin, staff photographer and writer at The New York Times, to discuss Richards' recently published book The Inner Passage: An Untold Story of Black Resistance Along a Southern Waterway.

The Inner Passage will be published by MIT Press in April 2026. The work uncovers a little-known chapter of American history: a 300-mile network of colonial-era canals carved by enslaved people along the Atlantic coast from

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Why write about your photography? Aren't your pictures supposed to say it all? Ideally, but written cues can offer viewers helpful entry points into your work. If you exhibit your work, preparing artist statements, project statements and biographies are necessities. If you are applying for an artist residency, a grant, or a call for entry, writing eloquently will illuminate the intention and process that sparked your imagery. The bottom line is, effective communication elevates your work.

In our first session of the course, we explain best practices for starting and maintaining successful