The Stories Around Us
May 31–October 29, 2007
University Gallery
Five photographers who are recent graduates of the CDS Continuing Studies Certificate in Documentary Studies program have prints on exhibition in the University Gallery
Amanda La France
When I Grow Up: A Conversation with the Women and Children of the Jeremiah Program
Approaching the subject as a former program participant, Amanda La France explores the hopes and dreams of a group of women who have shared experiences in the Jeremiah Program in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Through this program single mothers take control of their futures while maintaining full-time school schedules and part-time work schedules, empowering them to change the course of their lives not only for themselves but for their children as well.
A Midwesterner by birth and a Southerner by choice, Amanda La France made her roundabout journey from Minneapolis to Durham four years ago, by way of the American West and Northwest, to find her life’s calling in documentary work at CDS. She has an A.A.S. degree in media production, photography, and women’s studies, and has held a myriad of jobs, including being a farmhand at an organic farm, schlepping beers at a favorite local bar, and doing freelance photography work for a variety of organizations and projects. She lives in a restored Victorian house in Durham with her husband, two sons, and a menagerie of animals. When she grows up she hopes to travel the world as a freelance photographer while avoiding the frozen tundra of the Midwest during its nine months of winter.
Elena Rue
Love After Loss
As a Lewis Hine Fellow in Ethiopia, Elena Rue spent nine months working with and documenting the local non-governmental organization Hope for Children (HFC), which addresses the basic needs of children whose families have been affected by HIV/AIDS. HFC’s support allows children who still have family, friends, or neighbors to remain in their own communities, and for children left alone, HFC provides group homes, where six to eight children live together as a family with a group home mother. During her fellowship Rue spent a great deal of time documenting these families. In this body of work she attempts to show family life within these group homes and to give a face to the statistics flooding the media about HIV/AIDS orphans.
Elena Rue escaped from the cornfields of Iowa to study anthropology and documentary photography. In recent years she has worked as a freelance photographer and has completed internships at the Maine Photographic Workshops and DoubleTake magazine. Her documentary work has focused on adoption and non-traditional families. Included in this body of work are international, interracial, single, and gay and lesbian adoptive families. As a 2006 Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow at CDS, she worked with Hope for Children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She is currently juggling three jobs at the Center for Documentary Studies and is contemplating making CDS her permanent residence.
Tim Telkamp
4’ 8 1/2”: A Year in the Life of the New Hope Valley Railway
This “year-in-the-life” photo-documentary project of the New Hope Valley Railway spans almost three years, from the spring of 2004 through the winter of 2006. The photographs document the hard work of the staff at an all-volunteer railroad museum that operates trains for public rides. The New Hope Valley Railway is an amazing combination of history being preserved, relived, and even made. The project gives a glimpse of spikes being driven by hand, locomotives being lifted, track being straightened, efforts made to offer thousands of visitors the chance to ride a piece of history. For Telkamp, work on the project provided the opportunity to learn about the locomotives, railcars, and maintenance equipment used to run a railroad, but even more precious were the friendships he formed with the people who believe in the value of keeping this railroad alive.
Born in Virginia and raised near Orlando, Florida, Tim Telkamp is a photographer and technologist currently living in Apex, North Carolina. Wherever life has taken him, from crossing the Arctic Circle to South America and Europe, he has gone with camera in hand. His photographs have been published in newspapers and magazines, and his fine-art prints can be found in local galleries. The 2005 artist-in-residence for the North Carolina Railroad Museum, he is author/illustrator of “The Place That’s Always with You,” a children’s story set in Central North Carolina that celebrates home and history. Since graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in electrical engineering, he has been involved in many design and engineering projects, including Space Shuttle Launch control systems and the B2 bomber aircraft.
John N. Wall
Of divers colors, and wonderfull plentie: Documenting Growth and Change at the North Carolina Farmers Market
The North Carolina Farmers Market is a place where North Carolina’s history as an agrarian state meets its urban present and future, where the most southern of products collards and sweet potatoes now share space with goat cheese and fresh-baked croissants. This project combines what John Wall has been able to record of the Farmers Market with what he has come to learn about the practice of documentary photography.
John N. Wall lives in Raleigh and teaches at North Carolina State University. He is a native of North Carolina, where members of his family have been farmers for more than 250 years. His photographs may be found on his web site, www.jnwallphoto.com. He is grateful to the Center for Documentary Studies for supporting his growth as a photographer.
Dan Willett
Night – Time
Savannah and New Orleans. Two port cities rich with history that grew to become popular tourist destinations. Through his work, Dan Willett is trying to capture the architecture and urban design that are unique to each city and also to develop an understanding of regional growth and transformation. He hopes to convey how history is preserved in these everyday (and nighttime) scenes. Over the years, thousands of people have passed through the streets and walkways captured in these images.
Employed as an account executive for Siemens Medical in its IT division, Dan Willett is originally from Philadelphia. For the past six years he has been working with medium-format black-and-white photography in a traditional darkroom setting, exploring his interest in urban settings. He loves cityscapes and is fascinated with the different environments in which people congregate, commute, and socialize. More of his work can be viewed at www.danwillett.com.
banner image:
Partial view of the Lyndhurst Gallery, one of four exhibition spaces
at CDS. Photograph by Christoper Sims.
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