An Evening with Sarah Meister (Aperture)

Wednesday, 29. April 2026, 7 p.m., Amerikahaus München

In cooperation with the Bavarian American Academy (BAA) and Munich's Central Institute for Art History (ZI).

Admission is free, please register here.

About the Event:

In March 1936 Dorothea Lange made what is arguably the most well-known photograph in the world. Yet despite its ubiquity – and its popularity – decades passed before the most basic facts of its creation were known, and even those were often contested. Drawing from her experience writing a book about this singular image for The Museum of Modern Art, Sarah Meister will reflect on its ninety-year history and its continued significance today and subsequently engage in a discussion with scholars and museum curators from Munich.

Sarah Meister is Executive Director of Aperture, following more than twenty-five years at The Museum of Modern Art. She is leading efforts to move this storied nonprofit publisher to a new permanent home in Manhattan (anticipated mid-2026). As a curator, Meister’s most recent exhibitions include Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter (2025), Fotoclubismo: Brazilian Modernist Photography (2021); and Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures (2020). Her publications have considered Gordon Parks (2020) Frances Benjamin Johnston (2019), the 1967 MoMA exhibition New Documents (2017), Josef Albers (2016), Bill Brandt (2013), and many more.

In Conversation with

Dr. Franziska Lampe, Deputy Head Photothek, Central Institute of Art History (ZI)
Sonja Palade, Research Fellow of the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation, Bavarian State Painting Collections
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Schmidt, BAA Director & Chair of American Literary History at LMU Munich

Moderator: Dr. Dominik Brabant, Deputy Director, Central Institute of Art History (ZI)

This event is part of the series "The Eye of the Camera: Art, Politics, and Perception in American Photography"