NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ.- The
Zimmerli Art Museum at
Rutgers University presents 73 photographs documenting the efforts of individuals around the world to improve the lives of others from Saturday, June 18 to Sunday, July 31, 2011.
This moving photographic mosaic, entitled A View of Caring: The Johnson & Johnson /
International Center of Photography Fellowship Program, draws from many hundreds of images taken by graduates of the documentary photography and photojournalism program at the International Center for Photography (ICP) in New York. Since 2001, Johnson & Johnson, the New Jersey-based health care company, has sponsored a fellowship program at ICP that offers emerging photographers the opportunity to document the community based programs it supports in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
Each photograph in the exhibition is a frozen second in a more arduous success story, one that represents one of the three focus areas of Johnson & Johnson’s giving: saving and improving the lives of women and children; preventing disease and reducing stigmas and disabilities in underserved areas; and building the skills of those who provide for the health needs of others, primarily through education.
“The human face of social progress is ever present here, in memorable images brought home by a new generation of documentary photographers,” says Suzanne Delehanty, director of the Zimmerli. These include an understated composition by Myriam Abdelaziz, in which the viewer peers downwards at a plump baby with bandaged hands, sleeping peacefully in a burn treatment center in South Africa; a moment of pure joy, caught by Toni Greaves, as schoolchildren cling, arms stretched high above their heads, to a billowing, rainbow-colored parachute on a playground in Cork, Ireland; a straightforward image by Tiana Markova-Gold showing three little boys playing instruments in a schoolyard between classes in Beichuan, China; and a striking portrait made by Janea Wiedmann of a young mother-to-be gazing expectantly at the camera, her head shrouded in a pale peach cloth, while awaiting prenatal care at the Bidan Delima Midwives Clinic in Indonesia.
A school for girls in Tanzania; a vocational training center for the mentally impaired in Pakistan; classes for the deaf in Czechoslovakia; a program for healthy babies in Kentucky; an assistance center for seniors and their caregivers in Central Texas; an organization focusing on clean drinking water and sanitation for the residents of Juarez, Mexico; and workshops about HIV infection for teenagers in Moscow: these are among the programs depicted in A View of Caring.
The photographers represented in the exhibition are 2005 Fellows, Harry Zernike (born Stamford, Connecticut, 1965), Nicolas Goldberg (born Paris, France, 1978), Hilary Duffy (born New York City, 1969); 2006 Fellows Willie Davis (born Washington, DC, 1976), and Charlotte Oestervang (born Denmark); 2007 Fellows Kelly Shimoda (born California, 1976), Janea Wiedmann (Born New Jersey, 1967), Shraddha Borawake (born Pune, India); 2008 Fellows Mark Manley (born Cleveland, Ohio, 1957), Myriam Abdelaziz (born Cairo, Egypt, 1976), Toni Greaves (born Newcastle, Australia, 1969); 2009 Fellow, Tiana Markova-Gold (born Vermont, 1974); and 2010 Fellows Ruben Reyes (born Mexico City, 1979) and Christina Clusiau (born Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1980). These fellowship winners were selected by ICP and Johnson & Johnson from among recent graduates of its certificate program in documentary photography and photojournalism.
Alison Morley, Head of the Department of Documentary Photography and Photojournalism, says, “The partnership between ICP and Johnson & Johnson has resulted in images that are testaments to the power of people working within their own communities to create a better world for themselves and generations to come.”
This exhibition is the result of the cooperative efforts of three institutions, with primary curatorial and organizational input by the following individuals: Ashley L. Atkins, Curator, Corporate Art Program and Program Specialist, Corporate Contributions, Johnson & Johnson; Alison Morley, Chair, Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program, International Center of Photography, New York; Jeffrey Wechsler, Senior Curator, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University.
