CHAPEL HILL. NC.- The Ackland Art Museum announced Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men, on view from January 30 through April 12, 2026. The exhibition presents introspective portraits by distinguished Durham-based photographer and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumnus Bill Bamberger (American, born 1956) of male-identifying high school students from the Durham School of the Arts (DSA). Bamberger's images explore the diversity of American masculinity exhibited by contemporary youth facing adulthood. They are accompanied by the students' audio reflections on the expectations and experiences of coming of age.

Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men presents a selection of forty-two photographs drawn from the images created with over 250 student participants. The photographs are presented alongside an audio program drawn from a series of long-form interviews with selected students.

"I find it very interesting that me actually talking about my masculinity out loud is a concept that I've never really thought about outwardly. I think that [Bill] making this project is a beautiful concept because it gets young men and men in general to think about the things that they're not going to say," said Karell, a student participant in the project.

Started in 1984 at the Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, the Boys Will Be Men series continued in 2000 when Bamberger served as artist-in-residence at Flint Central High School in Michigan. In 2023, the Ackland commissioned Bamberger to bring the project to the Durham School of the Arts (DSA) in Durham, North Carolina, where he worked for two years to organize, interview, and photograph interested students, interacting with them both as participants and as project assistants.

"So often cultural conversations about adolescence seem to be generalizations coming from adults rather than observations emerging from the teens themselves. The collaborative approach of Boys Will Be Men that Bill employed allowed students to be seen and heard as individuals while also engaging the entire community in wide-ranging discussions and hands-on professional experience," said Lauren Turner, the Ackland's associate curator for contemporary art and special projects.

"We are delighted to collaborate with UNC alumnus Bill Bamberger and the Durham School of the Arts on this project. It's a pleasure to facilitate the latest chapter in Bill's ongoing series of more than forty years. We anticipate that the exhibition and the conversations it inspires will be deeply engaging for our students, faculty, and the public," said Shalini Le Gall, director of the Ackland.

Bill Bamberger was a Morehead-Cain Scholar at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently teaches at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies.