Lauren Greenfield – author event – Harvard Art Museums, USA

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Exhibition Opening Program for The Way We Never Were: Barbara Norfleet and Photography at Harvard

Lecture 6:00pm – 7:30pm

In-Person
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA, Enter at Broadway for evening programs

Know Before You Go
How to join: Register here.
Fee: This is a free event.
Parking: Limited free parking available at Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street.
Where to go: Enter on Broadway side of the building and head to Menschel Hall.
Accessibility accommodations: If you would like to request accommodations for your visit, please contact Visitor Services at am_register@harvard.edu or 617-495-9400. For more details about accommodations at the museums, please see the Accessibility page.
General info: The museum visit page has general guidelines for your visit.

To celebrate our new exhibition The Way We Never Were: The American Professional Photographers Collection, join us for a roundtable conversation reflecting on Barbara Norfleet’s expansive influence on photography at Harvard as a teacher, curator, and artist. Kiku Adatto, Peter Galassi, Lauren Greenfield, and Susan Meiselas will share personal memories and talk about how Norfleet helped shape the study and practice of photography across generations.

Following the lecture, guests are invited to visit the exhibition on Level 3.

Speakers:
Kiku Adatto, Scholar-in-Residence at the Mahindra Humanities Center and Lecturer on Social Studies, Harvard University
Peter Galassi, Writer, curator, and art historian
Lauren Greenfield, Artist, documentary photographer, and documentary filmmaker
Susan Meiselas, Artist
Audrey Sands, Richard L. Menschel Associate Curator of Photography, Harvard Art Museums

This program will be livestreamed. To tune in, check back here soon.

The Way We Never Were: The American Professional Photographers Collection brings renewed attention to a vast archive of photographs assembled in the 1970s by sociologist and curator Barbara P. Norfleet. The exhibition is on view from August 29, 2026 to May 9, 2027.

This event is part of In Conversation, a series of evening programs that feature local and international curators, artists, scholars, and more. Running from September through April, these events highlight our temporary exhibitions, permanent collections, and a range of creative voices.

Funding for the exhibition and related programming was provided by the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Fund for Photography and the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund. Modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.