February 2, 2007
The Coleman Center for the Arts is pleased to present Dust Shaped Hearts photographs by Philadelphia photographer, Donald E. Camp. The show will be on display at the Coleman Center from February 2nd to March 30th. The opening reception, which is free and open to the public, will take place Friday, February 2nd from 6 to 8 PM, and will include a performance by Willie King and the Liberators. Food will be provided by the Trackside Blues Café.
Camp’s new work is a continuation of the series that began over ten years ago. Drawing on his own experience as a newspaper photographer, Camp’s work grew out of a desire to transform the traditional newspaper head shot, as well as representation of the African American male in the mainstream media. The series has recently expanded to include men and women of all races, speaking to the values of love and tolerance everywhere.
Camp’s tightly cropped portraits are both commanding and intimate. The prints themselves use an adaptation of a 19th century photographic process that uses casein and pigment—essentially earth and milk. These materials, more archival than the traditional silver based photographic process, point to what Camp identifies as the biological aspect of photography. Ultimately, his process reveals simultaneously the fragility and tenacity of the human subject.
Camp visited the Coleman Center in the spring of 2006 while photographing blues musicians from across the South, including Alabama blues man, Willie King. In Camp’s statement about his most recent series he says, “the chosen form when combined with the human face is meant to evoke the feeling Blues.”
The Coleman Center will also offer a special educational program for Sumter County high school musicians. Band students from Sumter County High School, Livingston High School, and Sumter Academy will take a field trip to the Coleman Center gallery. The Alabama Blues Project will teach a lesson on the history of the Blues led by Willie King, which will be followed by an artist talk by Camp. This program is a chance for Sumter County high school students to gain first hand exposure to the Blues in the context of contemporary art.
Camp’s work has been shown extensively throughout the United States and Europe, and he has received numerous fellowships and awards including the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and the Pew Charitable Trust Foundation Fellowship. He currently lives in Philadelphia, PA.
The opening reception will include a performance by “Willie King and the Liberators,” and food by the Trackside Blues Café.
This exhibition is made possible by funding from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Support the Arts License Tag Committee.
For more information please contact the Coleman Center at (205) 392-2005, or email sberger@colemanarts.org.