In this lecture, Canadian photography curator William A. Ewing draws on his recent photography exhibitions to address how curators move from a ‘Platonic’ ideal (the ‘perfect’ exhibition) to the messy reality of compromise.

William A. Ewing was Director of Exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, New York, and between 1996 and 2010, Director of the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne. Since 2010, he has worked as a curator for Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis and Lausanne; and Fondation Carène, Switzerland. He is also Director of Curatorial Projects for Thames and Hudson, London. His exhibitions have been shown at major museums, including Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Hayward Gallery, Barbican Art Gallery, Somerset House, and Serpentine Gallery, London; Kunsthaus Zürich; Folkwang Museum, Essen; National Museum Reina Sofia, Madrid; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; and Setagaya Museum, Tokyo. His books include The Body and The Face, and, most recently, Landmark: The Fields of Landscape Photography and Edward Burtynsky: Essential Elements. Since 2010, Ewing has been an Officer in the French Order of Arts and Letters. In 2016, he was given the Royal Photographic Society Award for Outstanding Service to Photography. He lives in Lausanne, Switzerland, and works between there and London.