We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katherine below.

Katherine, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The vision of FotoFocus is “to inspire conversations about the world through the art of photography.” At our core, each project is a meaningful interpretation of this aspiration: we seek out artists, creatives, and experts of various fields, all with the intent of considering the world we live in now through a multitude of perspectives. Since 2010, FotoFocus has collaborated with organizations, curators, academics, and more than 3,000 artists and participants, to present over 800 exhibitions and programs. Each signature program, including the Biennial and annual Symposium, addresses timely social, political, and cultural topics, using photography and lens-based art to prompt dialogue and critical engagement with history, society, identity, and culture. Our most recent Biennial brought together 107 projects at 86 venues across the region, giving our partners the opportunity to realize ambitious projects while amplifying their content during this month-long celebration. Cumulatively, the biennial has welcomed over 1 million visitors to projects.

However, these metrics do not begin to express the effort, collaboration, partnership, and enthusiasm that allows us to boast being the largest photography festival of its kind in America. Having visited other annuals, biennials, and triennials, all of which are impressive in their own rights, there is something beautifully unique about our structure and how it brings a multitude of voices together and elevates all projects during this celebration of photography. When I moved to Ohio in 2014, the FotoFocus Biennial was one of my first introductions to the region and I immediately found this sense of community: I am grateful to now be a part of this impactful organization.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have served as the Executive Director of FotoFocus since 2023, and have worked in museums and/or archives for over 15 years. I’m fortunate to have worked at some of the leading photographic institutions in the country, including the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, as a fellow at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Prior to joining FotoFocus, I worked as the photography curator at the Dayton Art Institute, where I curated and oversaw the development of exhibitions that related to the museum’s encyclopedic collection. In college, I originally majored in Molecular and Cellular Biology until the end of my junior year when I realized I wished to work in art museums. I quickly pivoted to earning a Bachelor of Arts from the Interdisciplinary College and then continued to earn a Master of Arts in Art History and Certificate in Museum Studies at the University of Arizona.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

One of the most rewarding aspects of developing an exhibition is creating connections with an audience. To spend time researching and developing an exhibition, working with the artists and other collaborators is wonderful, but to then invite others to engage, to consider the variety of entry points they may bring based on their own backgrounds and perspectives, that is when a project comes alive in a new way.

This is also true for the collaborative nature of the Biennial. FotoFocus develops a theme for each biennial–which have included “backstories,” “World Record,” “Open Archive,” and “The Undocument,” with the 2026 theme as “The Long View”–which creates a foundation for the regional program. But through the invitation of collaborators, the theme includes new approaches than what we may have anticipated. It is great to see how others interpret these concepts to present projects that are important to their missions. It is incredibly rewarding to know that FotoFocus assists in the realization of such varied projects that celebrate photography and lens-based art.

Have you ever had to pivot?

FotoFocus is entering a new phase as we near completion of the FotoFocus Center, a new, 14,700 square foot facility. This is a remarkable moment in our organization’s history, but it is also uncharted territory. The Center includes nearly 4,500 square feet of gallery space, fundamentally shifting our day-to-day engagement with the region by allowing us to present year-round exhibitions and programming.

The Center requires FotoFocus to reconsider our methods of engagement as we transition to an everyday public-facing facility. This has required an internal audit of our branding and graphic design history to solidify messaging as we expand our offerings; a review of our website under the lens of an updated navigation, allowing visitors to understand the scope of our signature programming as well as the immediacy of visiting the Center to see exhibitions throughout the year; and looking at ways to program exhibitions in a multi-year calendar concept while still allowing flexibility with the schedule for exciting and new opportunities. This future home allows us to test our abilities while expanding upon the ethos of our core values, creating additional space to present artists and guest curators, maintaining that multitude of voices that we have championed since our creation. I look forward to welcoming you all to the space in the coming year where we can continue to have inspired conversations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fotofocus.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fotofocuscincinnati/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FotoFocusCincinnati
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fotofocus-cincinnati

Image Credits

All images courtesy of FotoFocus; Photos by Jacob Drabik, Emily Akil, Amy Powell; FotoFocus Center building rendering prepared by JOSE GARCIA DESIGN + CONSTRUCTION, courtesy FotoFocus