The purpose of the Photo Soup project is to collect and share personal histories among workers in the world of photography. The core of this multi-year initiative is an annual four-day retreat in Rockingham, Vermont, during which six to eight invited participants consider their individual paths into photography in formal presentations and informal talks. Each year’s gathering is loosely organized around a given theme, and attendees represent all corners of the photographic field, including curation, academia, publishing, commerce, and artistic practice, with an emphasis on less-heard voices. Together we explore the life and ecosystem—the soup—of photography, a medium that somehow still serves us as no other can.
Each year’s Photo Soup conversations are gathered in a modest publication, and you can get the book here.
The Photo Soup project is supported by Streamway Foundation Trust and organized by Alison Nordström and Diana Stoll.
“The motivation behind Photo Soup is to look at the broader context of photography, the ecosystem—the soup. And to try to suss out some of what’s happening by examining the personal experiences of people who have been deeply immersed in various corners of the field, have seen the changes, have played a part in the changes.”
—Diana Stoll
“Photo Soup is also a reminder of certain values and approaches that characterize our experience of the Field even in times of great change. The face-to-face exchange of ideas seems harder to orchestrate these days, but when it happens, its inimitable value is clear.”
—Alison Nordström
PHOTO SOUP 5: Legacies
October 8–11, 2026
Streamway Foundation, Rockingham, Vermont
Participants at Photo Soup 5 consider the idea of “Legacies”—both material and conceptual. In the cultures of photography, legacies may manifest as attitudes or ethics, aesthetic or technical innovations passed to the next generations, published monographs or reviews, boxes of prints or cloudfuls of digital images; they may also endure in the ongoing work of students and followers. In this time of existential change for the medium of photography, questions are explored: What value do such legacies have? Where will they go? How should they be used?
Participants
Laylah Amatullah Barrayn
Jon Evans
W.M. (Bill) Hunt
Judith Lane
Annu Palakunnathu Matthew
Patrick Montgomery
Victoria Munro
Alison Nordström (Co-Director)
Diana Stoll (Co-Director)
“It’s all about relationships . . . if I have any value in this industry, it’s being able to connect people, people I feel can help each other, or who would love each other.”
—Elizabeth Krist, at Photo Soup 2
Streamway Foundation, Rockingham, Vermont
“The book, the process, having it out in the world, with its own life, as an ambassador for the artist’s work, is really important. Making a book can have an imprint on the artist, not just on the viewer.”
—Joshua Chuang, at Photo Soup 1