“Figure out who you are,” advises Douglas McCulloh in his undated essay “How to Succeed in Photography.” The late artist, curator, and museum director was drawn to fellow practitioners who similarly embrace an ethos of integrity in their work and lives. Open to meeting anyone, McCulloh approached chance interactions with generosity and curiosity, cultivating a spirit of collegiality that connected him to artists across generations and disciplines. Through these relationships, many artists he encountered would come to be represented in the museum’s permanent collection. Brought together here, a selection of works by Lewis deSoto, Sant Khalsa, Thomas McGovern, Ann Summa, and others, as well as copies of McCulloh’s exhibition catalogues, offer a glimpse into his wide-ranging interests and relationships.

A Solid Sense of Who You Are is organized by Alyse Yeargan, Collections Manager, and Joanna Szupinska, Senior Curator, in conjunction with the retrospective exhibition Dispatches: The Photography of Douglas McCulloh, 1990–2025, on view at the museum in Fall 2026. Exhibitions at UCR ARTS are supported by the City of Riverside. UCR ARTS is part of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UCR.

Image: Ann Summa, Patricia & Alice, The Bags, Hong Kong Cafe, 1979. Courtesy of the artist.