SPEAKING AND OUTREACH
A thoughtful documentary photographer and speaker who helps communities, organizations and educational institutions reflect on identity, memory, craft, and human connection.
Presentations have included insights and ideas to a wide range of civic and professional organizations, businesses, libraries, schools, nonprofits, and trade associations.
Learn more about outcomes from the programs below by sending an email to e.dusenbery@gmail.com
Common Ground: Curiosity, Story, and the Art of Seeing
This multimedia presentation reflects Eric Dusenbery’s belief that art and storytelling have the power to transform not only how we communicate, but how we understand one another and the communities we inhabit. At its core, this talk considers how each of us—through attention, curiosity, and intention—has the capacity to create meaningful change.
Drawing from years of documentary photography and long-term, place-based historical projects, Eric explores how the medium functions as both an artistic practice and a civic act. His work engages questions of identity, belonging, and shared history, offering a lens through which audiences can reconsider their own relationships to place, work, and community.
The presentation bridges artistic insight with practical application, demonstrating how the principles of documentary practice—attention, patience, and empathy—can strengthen communication, support creative thinking, and foster more authentic connections in professional and civic life.
Key Themes Explored
• Curiosity as a driver of creativity, leadership, and innovation
• The role of stillness and attention in decision-making and perspective
• Listening as a foundational creative and relational practice
• Storytelling as a tool for strengthening organizational and community identity
Craft as Culture: Making, Meaning, and Memory
As technology increasingly shapes 21st-century life, craft offers a path toward connection, engagement, and renewal. The measured pace of working with our hands and with analog materials (and in particular the deliberate practice of film-based large-format documentary photography) slows the act of making and deepens attention. In doing so, it cultivates presence and a more thoughtful regard for quality, purpose, and the enduring relationship between subject, maker, and time.
Ideal for arts, educational, and community-focused venues, the program invites audiences to reconsider the value of craft, presence, and storytelling as tools for personal reflection and collective understanding.
Rooted: a community-based documentary photography & storytelling workshop
A lecture and/or workshop for participants by exploring both the craft and ethics of documentary photography and storytelling. The workshop introduces students to the deliberate, slower process of working with photography and storytelling to emphasize intention and the relationship between photographer and subject—while also situating this approach within a broader documentary tradition. Complementing this, a community-based storytelling workshop invites participants to engage directly with documentary methodology, including ethical interviewing, trust-building, and collaborative narrative-making. Through guided exercises and real-world application, participants gain practical skills while understanding how storytelling can function as both an artistic practice and a form of community engagement.
"Thanks again for joining our dynamic team of special speakers with The Enrichment Academy program. You hit a home run last night with our residents. They really enjoyed it!"
Melanie Sarakinis, The Villages Enrichment Academy
"Eric is the vehicle that tells Florida's stories."
Robert Redd, Executive Director, New Smyrna Beach Museum of History
"Your program was very interesting, and the guests loved the photographs, as well as the stories that brought your subjects to life.Through your observations of the present and knowledge of the past this helps form our understanding of the place. In order to form a complete understanding, we have to experience the stories, memories, traditions, and cultural history of that place."
Katherine A. Turner
Citrus County Historical Museum
"Eric's presentations at the Barberville Pioneer Settlement have not only been educational but entertaining — the audience interaction was wonderful. The demonstrations and talks made perfect sense as the topic related to our organization's mission of preservation and education on local folk arts and traditional trades."
Debra West, Executive Director
Barberville Pioneer Settlement
