"This is Where We Live," Artist Talk by Wendy Ewald, The Inaugural halley k harrisburg '90 and Michael Rosenfeld Artist-in-Residence

Wendy Ewald, the Inaugural halley k harrisburg ’90 and Michael Rosenfeld Artist-in-Residence, will give a talk on her current work, This is Where We Live. The talk will take place at 7:30 p.m., Monday, October 26, 2015, in Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center, on the campus of Bowdoin College.

For decades Ewald has collaborated in art projects with children, families, women, and teachers in Labrador, Colombia, India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Holland, Mexico and the United States. In her work with children she encourages them to use cameras to record themselves, their families, and their communities, and to articulate their fantasies and dreams. Ewald herself often makes photographs within the communities and has the children mark or write on her negatives, thereby challenging the concept of who actually makes an image, who is the photographer, who the subject, who is the observer and who the observed. In blurring the distinction of individual authorship and throwing into doubt the artist’s intentions, power, and identity, Ewald creates opportunities to look at the meaning and use of photographic images in our lives with fresh perceptions.

Wendy Ewald was born in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Antioch College, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied photography. She is currently senior research associate at the Center for International Studies at Duke University, visiting artist at Amherst College and director of the Literacy through Photography International program and artist in residence at the Duke University Center for International Studies.

The halley k harrisburg and Michael Rosenfeld Artist-in-Residence program is the result of a generous gift that allows the Bowdoin Visual Art faculty to invite internationally renowned artists to campus to work directly with students and the college community to enhance their learning experience. Students will encounter and learn from artists that are not usually available in an academic setting. These encounters may take many forms, such as critiques, discussions, workshops, lectures, and more.

This inaugural event is free and open to the public and is made possible through the halley k harrisburg and Michael Rosenfeld gift, the Dean of Academic Affairs, and the Department of Visual Art.