R.C. May Photography Lecture Series: Mia Fineman

Dr. Mia Fineman discusses her curatorial practice and one of her current projects, Casa Susanna, an exhibition of photographs and publications created by and for a community of cross-dressers who met regularly in New York City and the Catskill Mountains throughout the 1960s. Casa Susanna offers insight into a significant pre-Stonewall cross-dressing scene, inviting visitors to understand this world and its connection to the lives of transgender people today. The exhibition will be on view at the Met from July 21, 2025 to January 25, 2026.

Fineman is curator of photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she has organized numerous exhibitions including  Apollo’s Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography (2019), Talking Pictures: Camera-Phone Conversations Between Artists (2017), Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop (2012), On Photography: A Tribute to Susan Sontag (2006), and Other Pictures: Vernacular Photographs from the Thomas Walther Collection (2000).