USA Projects

 Wendy Ewald is an American photographer and educator who has for forty years collaborated in art projects with children, families, women, and teachers worldwide.  Starting as documentary investigations of places and communities, Ewald's projects probe questions of identity and cultural differences.  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 she works with 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. Ewald has received many honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship.  Her work was included in the 1997 Whitney Biennial.  She has published ten books, her fifth, a retrospective documenting her projects entitled Secret Games.  

 A Kentucky native, veteran documentary filmmaker Elizabeth Barret has pursued an abiding interest in the history, culture, and social issues of Appalachia.  Her films/videos are produced in association with the artist-centered organization Appalshop where she works in and across a variety of disciplines including visual arts and media arts to help advance new dialogue about contemporary documentary practice and participatory art.  Barret is the recipient of a Kentucky Arts Council Fellowship in Media Arts, an NEA Southeast Media Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Film/Video/ Multimedia Fellowship. Her work has been supported by Ford Foundation, NEH, and Independent Television Service (ITVS) and has screened at festivals and venues worldwide.  The award winning Stranger With A Camera (2000), a self-reflexive exploration of issues of media representation, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was selected for PBS broadcast on P.O.V.  She is currently coordinator of cultural exchange activities at Appalshop and Director of the Appalshop Archive.