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Lesley University and the Consulate General of France in Boston present a panel discussion on January 30 at 7pm in Lesley’s Washburn Auditorium.

The panel discussion, held in conjunction with the exhibit Revolutions: Photographs of the Arab Spring by the late photojournalist Remi Ochlik, will address the important role of photojournalism in the context of the Arab Spring.

It will feature Stephen Mayes, moderator; Karim Ben Khelifa, a Belgian-Tunisian photojournalist; Ludovic Blecher, executive director and editor-in-chief of French newspaper Libération; and Judith Matloff, a professor at Columbia University's graduate journalism program.

About the panelists

Stephen Mayes, Moderator, is Director of VII Photo in New York, representing 23 of the world’s leading photojournalists. He has worked at the top levels of photography for 25 years, in the areas of journalism, art, commercial and fashion – working as manager of Network Photographers; Chair of World Press Photo competition; Senior Vice President at eyestorm.com and Getty Images; and Director of Image Archive at Art + Commerce. Mayes regularly writes and broadcasts on the ethics and realities of photographic practice.

Karim Ben Khelifa is a Belgian-Tunisian photojournalist and co-founder and CEO of Emphas.is, a website designed to promote crowd-funded visual journalism. For the past 12 years, he has covered conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and other stories around the world. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Time, Le Monde and Stern. His photography awards include the 2004 Fujifilm Young Reporter Award. He also was selected for the 2000 World Press Photo Joop swart Masterclass in the Netherlands.

Ludovic Blecher is executive director and editor-in-chief of Libération, where he has been in charge of the French newspaper’s digital strategy since 2008. He joined Libération in 2001 as a reporter and was later appointed editor-in-chief and oversaw the merger of the print and web staff. Blecher is a member of ePresse, a French media consortium. He is currently the Robert Waldo Ruhl Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

Judith Matloff is a professor at Columbia University's graduate journalism program and was previously a foreign correspondent for 20 years. She has written about the dangers facing female correspondents, and has been published in The New York Times, The Economist and Newsweek. She works for The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

The related exhibition, Revolutions, presents a stirring collection of photographs by French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, who was killed in the February 2012 bombardment of Homs during the Syrian uprising along with American war journalist Marie Colvin.

The exhibit runs from January 26 until February 22, 2013 in The Art Institute of Boston (AIB) Main Gallery, 700 Beacon Street, Boston.