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Portraits and Dreams: A Revisitation

A digital media project that weaves together the stories of a photographer and those she taught in r

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About

Over the past three decades a growing number of artists have worked as collaborators with people from outside the art world. Photographer Wendy Ewald is one of the pioneers in this approach to artmaking. During 1975 – 1982 in the coalfields of Letcher County, Kentucky, Ewald worked as an artist in the schools. She encouraged her young students (ages six to fourteen) to use cameras to record themselves, their families and communities, and to articulate their fantasies and dreams. Material from that artistic and educational initiative was collected in the groundbreaking 1985 book Portraits and Dreams. The visual art/media art project Portraits and Dreams: A Revisitation has been launched by Elizabeth Barret with Wendy Ewald. The project participants are Ewald’s former students who are now adults. With them, we are exploring the meanings behind the photographs, what is revealed about the practice of collaborative art, and the relationship of images to personal memory.