Mark Armijo McKnight in Conversation with Garth Greenwell

In his vivid black-and-white images of nude bodies, harsh landscapes, and the interplay between them, Mark Armijo McKnight explores the dualities of darkness and light, isolation and togetherness, and an “intentional undoing of the self” using the language of Modernist photography. For this conversation, Armijo McKnight invites writer Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016), Cleanness (FSG, 2020), and Small Rain (FSG, 2024) to discuss the throughlines and reciprocal influences between their respective practices. The conversation will explore their shared interests, from the French philosopher Simone Weil’s writings on beauty to the ways their friendship has influenced their understandings of poetics, visual arts, opera, and more. The conversation is moderated by Drew Sawyer, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art.