“We Are Worth Everything: Survivors As Themselves” Exhibition

“We Are Worth Everything: Survivors As Themselves” Exhibition

SHOW DATES: February 3 – March 14, 2020

RECEPTION: February 8 | 3–5 PM

We are Worth Everything: Survivors as Themselves features portraits made in collaboration with Survivors by Judy Walgren, Associate Director and Professor of Practice, MSU School of Journalism, Eve Edelheit, Award Winning Independent and Freelance Photographer, and Maddie McGarvey, Independant and Freelance Photographer and Photojournalist. Also featured is a poem by Kimberly Ann Priest, Assistant Professor, MSU Writing Rhetoric and American Culture, titled “Celebrate.”

Exhibition Statement:

Visual archives are powerful devices for building and perpetuating cultural perceptions of communities, especially groups who have been involved in traumatic events. During a recent online search using “Survivors” and the name of an infamous abuser, the viewer is confronted with gridded images of extremely distraught women interspersed with photographs of a large group of women standing onstage during a high-profile awards ceremony. This body of work, created collaboratively between the photographer and the people portrayed, attempts to expand narrowly focused visual narratives around the Survivor community from Michigan State University and beyond. By presenting images that reach beyond visualized trauma and triumph, we hope to present a more nuanced view of these courageous people, expand the archive and move their stories forward.

This is an ongoing body of work. If you identify as a Survivor and would like to participate in our project, please email Judy Walgren at walgrenj@msu.edu.

 

 

This exhibition was possible thanks to support from the Michigan State University College of Arts and Letters, College of Communication Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Art, Art History, and Design.