Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds

Sept 5 - Nov 9, 2025

LOUISVILLE, KY

MESSAGE FROM PAUL PALETTI, DIRECTOR

Louisville Photo Biennial

To Our Partners in the 2023 Louisville Photo Biennial

I want to thank each of you for the stellar work you did in organizing the exhibits and programming for the 2023 Louisville Photo Biennial.

This is a totally cooperative effort by the 54 galleries, museums, colleges, universities, and other cultural venues, who all contributed so generously of their time, talents, and resources. You are the heart and soul of the Louisville Photo Biennial, and you made this year’s events the best of all.

We were truly blessed to have Larry Schiller as our Keynote speaker  (you can watch his talk by clicking it, here)  He is a great story teller, and it was fascinating to learn about his wide ranging and creative activities, past and present, and the ways he created opportunities that led to his photographs and directing experiences. His opening charge to the audience to bring in young people to expose them to cultural activities, which are at the core of the Louisville Photo Biennial, has resonated with many of you who attended the talk, and who have talked with me about his presentation. Special thanks to the Speed Museum for hosting the event, and to our board member, Marvin Young, who video recorded Larry’s presentation.

This year saw the start of the Paste Up Mural Project, (PUMP), created by Julie Schweitzer and Kim Willhite. The beautiful photographic posters, which they put up throughout Southern Indiana and Louisville, helped promote the Louisville Photo Biennial and brought our exhibits out to the public at large. This has enormous potential for promoting the Louisville Photo Biennial exhibits in years to come, and the possibility of full scale, freestanding outdoor photo exhibits.

Of course, the credit for tireless organizational skills, patience and persistence goes to Sam Miller. Her collection and management of the thousands of pieces of information which comes in from all our venues is the foundation of the Louisville Photo Biennial.

Elizabeth Spalding, and her 21 Skye Design team, have once again created a beautiful program guide and website for us. Their creativity in choosing, organizing, and presenting the photographic photographs and information has resulted in wide, ranging visibility, and has been a tremendous asset in helping people attend our exhibits and events. We distributed 6500 of the guides.

And, of course, thanks to our Board of Directors and our volunteers continue to support all of our efforts with their creativity, time, and willingness to take on any number of tasks, which require hands-on activity.

Thank you all, and congratulations on such a successful and wonderfully received by Biennial.

Now it’s time to start work on the 2025 Louisville Photo Biennial, which will run from September 5 to November 9, 2025. Our challenge is to make the next one even better.

HISTORY

Started in 1999 by four East Market Street galleries, the Louisville Photo Biennial has grown to encompass more than fifty photographic exhibits at venues throughout Metro Louisville, southern Indiana, and central Kentucky. This amazing cooperative effort between galleries, museums, colleges, universities, and other cultural institutions celebrates the medium of photography through a rich variety of exhibits including fine art, documentary, design, historic and even everyday snapshot photography. We are pleased to present works by photographers of national and international fame, as well as our extremely talented local and regional photographers.

2023 KEYNOTE SPEAKER LAWRENCE SCHILLER

September 21, 2023 Speed Art Museum • 5:30PM Reception • 6:30PM Presentation

Free and Open to the Public, Courtesy of the Museum

Though a childhood accident left him with impaired vision in one eye, Lawrence Schiller became an obsessive photographer; even while attending Pepperdine College, his pictures had already appeared in Life, Sport, Playboy, Glamour, and the Saturday Evening Post. Schiller’s interests and ambitions soon developed into a profession in print journalism, documenting major stories for glossy magazines all over the world, including Life, Look, Newsweek, Time, Paris Match, Stern, and the London Sunday Times. His iconic images of Robert F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bette Davis, Barbra Streisand, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, and Madame Nhu, among others are tributes to his doggedness, ingenuity, and charm as well as to his technical proficiency.

In November 1963, while on assignment for the Saturday Evening Post, he reached Dallas in time to photograph Lee Harvey Oswald. Later, he landed Jack Ruby’s final interview. After extensive interviews with the widow of Lenny Bruce in 1968, Schiller and the writer Albert Goldman published Ladies and Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce (1974); and, with the photographer W. Eugene Smith, he produced Minamata (1975), the epic pictorial chronicle of mercury poisoning in Japan.

Schiller moved into motion pictures by directing a portion of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, and  “Lady Sings the Blues” (1972) with Diana Ross. In 1971, he produced and co-directed with L.M. Kit Carson the acclaimed documentary, “The American Dreamer ” on Dennis Hopper. His editorial direction of “The Man Who Skied Down Everest” (1972) won an Oscar for Best Feature Documentary for its producer. After obtaining extraordinary cooperation from the Kremlin, in 1986, he executive produced and co-directed “Peter the Great “, the Emmy Award-winning television mini-series starring Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, and Laurence Olivier.

Perhaps nothing in Schiller’s career proved more remarkable, though, than his collaboration with Norman Mailer—a friendship unique in American literary history. For nearly thirty-five years, the two worked closely together on books including Marilyn (1973), The Faith of Graffiti (1974), Oswald’s Tale (1995), Into the Mirror (2002), and The Executioner’s Song (1979), for which Mailer won the Pulitzer Prize. Schiller, who conceived of the project, did much of the legwork, interviews, and research for the book, while outmaneuvering numerous other reporters to gain exclusive access to the book’s subject, Gary Gilmore, and went on to produce and direct the award-winning television miniseries based upon it, starring Tommy Lee Jones.

Schiller embedded himself into the so-called “Dream Team” defending O. J. Simpson, and with his unique insider’s perspective on the case, co-wrote (with James Willwerth) the New York Times number one best-selling “American Tragedy” (1996). His reporting on antisocial behavior soon became the basis for many books and motion pictures and documentaries for television, many of which he produced and directed.

Schiller has been a consultant to NBC News, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and the Annie Leibovitz Studios, among many other photographic archives; and has written for The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, and other publications. Upon the death of Norman Mailer, in 2008, Schiller was named the President and Co-Founder of the Norman Mailer Center and Writer’s Colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He currently is a consultant and advisor to various estates and trusts on monetizing and preserving the legacy of noted figures in America.

Click the below link for a recording of the event thanks to Biennial Board member Marvin Young. 

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

EVENT SCHEDULE

PUMP: PASTE-UP MURAL PROJECT

Sponsored by Samtec Cares and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County

The project is directed by Julie Schweitzer at ArtSeed Inc.

Louisville Photo Biennial Paste-Up Mural Project (PUMP) is an outdoor mural exhibition. PUMP will include Photo Biennial photographers from southern Indiana and Kentucky participating venues, and young adult and children’s photographers from both states.

PUMP will employ an innovative technique that allows photographs to be printed and pasted in various sites on buildings and public spaces across the Kentuckiana area with an emphasis on displaying Indiana artists in Kentucky and Kentucky artists in Indiana to promote interstate tourism.

Support Us

Louisville Photo Biennial is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Now in our 24th year, we
produce a collaborative bi-annual festival celebrating the medium of photography through
exhibitions, workshops and other programming. Our mission is to expand appreciation of
photography as an art form, to encourage visual literacy through photography as a documentary
tool and a powerful medium for storytelling, and to create meaningful dialogue throughout
Kentucky and Indiana.

The Louisville Photo Biennial is produced and staffed primarily by volunteers and arts
professionals who support us with their time, talent and generosity. Please show your support
and appreciation by making a contribution to the Louisville Photo Biennial.
Our mailing address is

Louisville Photo Biennial, Inc.

713 East Market Street, Suite 100
Louisville, Kentucky 40202

For any questions, contact Paul Paletti at 502-589-9254

Thank you!

PATRONS

Keith Auerbach, David & Cindy Becker, John & Jennifer Beckman, Edward Garber, Thomas & Mary Hardin, Leslie Holland, Paul Paletti, C.J. Pressma

Special Thanks

These generous donors and organizations make it possible!