Tag: NYPL

Color by Smells – DrMLGodin & Aromatica Poetica June 2026 Newsletter

This season’s newsletter features: Carnegie Hall, NYPL surprises, a petri dish of emotions and a museum of smells plus pencils, perfumes, and blue, blue, blue… Image description: Three cyan-blue botanical photograms stand side by side like specimens suspended between science and dream. Pale seaweed-like forms bloom outward in delicate white silhouettes, their branching fronds glowing against the deep blue ground… Read more

First Month as an NYPL Cullman Fellow * Photo/Description Journal

From my first mornings entering the New York Public Library as the 2025-26 Jean Strouse Fellow in the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, I knew it would be a very happy year! Perhaps it was the five months away in so many new situations—MacDowell, Yaddo, San Francisco—learning to bumble about with Moses, that made it possible for me to… Read more

Valentin Haüy’s Essai (1786) * On the Education of Blind Children * NYPL Rare books * Image + Description

I wrote about Valentin Haüy and his founding of the first school for blind children in 1785 in There Plant Eyes. My dear friend David Lowe, who is a photo specialist in the Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs at the New York Public Library, read my book (Thanks, David!), and because he did, when he saw Valentin Haüy’s… Read more

“100 Years of Blindness: A Scented Performance-Lecture on Photography” – April 15!

After a sold-out performance on March 1, I’m delighted to announce a second chance to experience “100 years of Blindness: A Scented Performance Lecture on Photography” on April 15, 7pm, at Olfactory Art Keller, NYC! Buy tickets! What happens when we explore photography without sight? In this experimental performance lecture, blind author and artist Dr. M. Leona Godin conjures five… Read more

Image Description and the Critical Blind Gaze * NYPL Public Lecture

*As a 2023-24 Diamonstein-Spielvogal Fellow at the New York Public Library, I was asked to give a public lecture in the Vartan Gregorian Center for Research in the Humanities on March 8, 2024 called: “Image Description and the Critical Blind Gaze.” Below is the recording of the lecture—including questions from the star-studded audience!—followed by a cleaned-up transcript of my lecture… Read more

New York Public Library Talk: “Image Description and the Critical Blind Gaze” – In-Person on March 8

I’m thrilled to present “Image Description and the Critical Blind Gaze” at The New York Public Library (NYPL) in-person on March 8, 2pm! Free, but please register. About the Talk Author and scholar M. Leona Godin uses photographs in the Library’s collections to explore the strange relationship between sighted photographers and blind subjects. The photography division of The Miriam and… Read more