In a conversation format, the acclaimed photographers Teju Cole and John Gossage discuss their art during their appearance at the 2026 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture at UC Davis. Cole is a novelist, essayist, and photographer. He was the photography critic of the New York Times Magazine from 2015 until 2019. He is currently the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard and a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. Gossage is a photographer and bookmaker. Over the course of his nearly five-decade-long career, Gossage’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, and he has published over 30 books. In 2002, Gossage started his own publishing company, Loosestrife Editions. In 2021, he received the Guggenheim Fellowship.