 C l i c k h e r e t o v i e w w o r k A 10-year-old Chapel Hill boy, paralyzed by a spinal injury, can't push the camera's button to take a photograph, but he made pictures anyway-through his Duke student mentor, by describing to her his vision. An 8-year-old Gibsonville girl doesn't like to talk directly about her little brother's brain tumor; instead, she crafted her photographs to reflect a more playful outlook. Pictures alone weren't quite enough for a 12-year-old in Raleigh who has leukemia; she decided to glue her photographs to construction paper and surround them with creative word patterns reflecting her complex feelings. These images and more will be featured in a special exhibition-Children and the Experience of Illness: Class Projects, 1999-at the Center for Documentary Studies beginning April 28, 1999. The public is invited to an opening reception that evening from 6 to 7:30 p.m. A spring 1999 course taught at the Center for Documentary Studies paired children experiencing serious illness with college students and gave them Polaroid cameras to use as a means of expression. Each child-and-student team met once a week and developed their photographic skills together as they built trust and understanding. The results of this semester-long partnership, chronicling family, friends, home and the Ronald McDonald House, will be exhibited at the Center for Documentary Studies through June 11, 1999. The course, taught by John Moses, Julie Stovall, and Wendy Ewald, grew out of a recognition that children have much to teach all of us about their experience of illness, and that photography might be used to help with this effort. The children's work often captures how they see themselves, as human beings with an existence outside the scope of illness. A range of moods are caught on film in the many portraits of the meaningful people in these children's lives: their families and friends-and their college student mentors. Students' portraits of themselves reveal the warm bonds that developed over the past four months and the caring, fruitful, and creative relationships the two encouraged in each other. Hours for the Porch Gallery at the Center for Documentary Studies are Monday through Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For directions or more information, please call (919) 660-3663. The Center for Documentary Studies is located at 1317 W. Pettigrew St., in Durham. This exhibition was made possible by support from the "Independent Weekly" and the Lyndhurst Foundation. |