Different perspectives
Brighton resident Carol Woo may have been on crutches with her leg in a cast, but she still braved the rain to attend Professor Robin Kelsey’s talk on photography. The event was part of the Harvard Allston Ed Portal’s faculty speaker series, which brings Harvard professors to the Ed Portal to present on subjects from the General Education curriculum. “I like to come to the lectures, and I’m particularly interested in photography,” she said. “When I was young, I took pictures all the time and even entered them in competitions, and thought this was a great opportunity to learn more about the subject.” Kelsey, the Shirley Carter Burden Professor of Photography and chair of the History of Art and Architecture Department, focused on “performing for the camera” — from the stiff, formal poses adopted for daguerreotype images to the anonymity of candid shots taken with cellphones. The lecture—this fall’s second—drew an audience...