The Dust Never Settles
Wyatt Gallery, Jennifer Shaw & Dave Anderson
On view: April 22 – May 29, 2011
Artists’ Reception, Lectures & Book Signing: May 6, 6-9 PM
Lecture with Gallery & Shaw 7 pm: Tickets: $7 / $5 Members
Gallery & Shaw will talk about their projects in the “The Dust Never Settles” and share their earlier work as well. Each will reveal their approaches to finding a meaningful career in photography and share their insight in finding publishers for their work.
The Dust Never Settles is an exhibition exploring three photographers’ point of view – revealing stories of survival, hope and rebuild of those living in Haiti and New Orleans that were affected by natural disasters. In light of the recent tragedy in Japan, and growing fears of one like it hitting our own city, these artists each remind us that years later the emotional and physical rebuilding of a city has just begun.
In his series, Tent Life: Haiti, Wyatt Gallery’s photographs communicate the resiliency, dignity, and strength of millions of Haitians who are presently forced to live in tragic makeshift tent communities. “Many people regularly carry more in the trunks of their cars that these Haitians have in their tents. They have lost everything. But Wyatt Gallery engages them as people, not as victims. He displays their love of vivid colors, their faith, and small moments of joy.” -Anne Wilkes Tucker, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Jennifer Shaw was nine months pregnant and due in less than a week when Hurricane Katrina blew into the Gulf. Hurricane Story is a depiction of her family’s evacuation experience – the birth, the travels and the return home to a destroyed city. Jennifer created a narrative series of photographs using small toys that illustrate her experiences and emotional state during her time in exile.
In his series, One Block, Dave Anderson follows the reconstruction of a single New Orleans block from 2006 to 2010 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, delivering a powerful portrait of the storm’s ongoing physical and psychological impact on the city and its residents. Using portraiture, still lifes, and abstract images, Dave Anderson documents the evolution of both the street and its houses as residents rebuild, exploring the very nature of community while testing its resilience.
BIOS
Wyatt Gallery is an American photographer who has received numerous awards, such as the Fulbright Fellowship, the PDN 30, and 25 Under 25, Up and Coming American Photographers by Duke University. His photographs have been exhibited throughout the U.S. and are in major private and public collections such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the George Eastman House, and American Express. He was an adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and has been published in the New York Times, Geo Saison, Esquire, Mother Jones, and Newsweek, amongst other international publications.
Jennifer Shaw is a fine art photographer who lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. She teaches the disappearing art of darkroom photography at the Louise S. McGehee School and works as a freelance photographer, with a concentration on her personal work and custom portraiture. She was a founding officer and board member of the New Orleans Photo Alliance, where she continues to serve as coordinator of the annual PhotoNOLA festival. Jennifer’s photographs have been featured in B&W Magazine, Shots, Light Leaks Magazine and The Sun. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and is held in both private and public collections, including the Huntsville Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Her work is included in the book and travelling exhibition: Before During After: Louisiana Photographers Respond to Katrina.
Dave Anderson has been recognized as “one of the shooting stars of the American photo scene” by Germany’s fotoMAGAZIN and named a “Rising Star” by Photo District News. His project Rough Beauty was the winner of the 2005 National Project Competition awarded by Center, Santa Fe and was published with an essay by Anne Wilkes Tucker. Vince Aletti of the New Yorker has called his work “as clear-eyed and unsentimental as it is soulful and sympathetic.” Anderson’s work has been featured in magazines from Esquire to Stern and can be found in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; the Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi; and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.