Lehman Brady Visiting Professor, documentary performer and playwright, Mike Wiley in the CDS Library performing Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till.

Our class had the pleasure of a visit from Mike Wiley last week. I’m sure I wasn’t the only student in class wondering what a documentary performer actually did. I mean, it’s not as obvious as film making, photography, oral history, etc. I’ll admit, I even had somewhat of a “really?” outlook on Tuesday’s class. That instantly changed when Mike began to share about the kind of work he does, how he works, does research and interviews, and ultimately performs his work. I was blown away by the whole process. We were then treated to a roughly 10-minute performance of part of Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till. It was incredible!

Mike’s work includes Blood Done Sign My Name; Life Is So Good; Tired Souls: The Montgomery Bus Boycott; Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till; Jackie Robinson: A Game Apart; Brown v. Board of Education: Over Fifty Years Later; and One Noble Journey: A Box Marked Freedom.

Mike’s Web site is here.

One of the things I’ve appreciated the most about this class has been our exposure to so many different forms of documentary study. As a photographer, it’s easy to have a narrow field of view on documentary work. I’ve always liked documentary films, so that was easily adaptable to my relatively short list of what documentary studies were. For whatever reasons (and I’m sure there are many), I never really evaluated all the other forms of documentary work (most certainly not documentary performance). Throughout the six weeks of class thus far, the variety of assigned readings, and the exposure to the incredibly generous visitors we’ve had (thanks to Joy, our fearless leader), so many doors have been opened and I’ve begun to see an interconnectedness I was unaware of. Perhaps I’ll write more about that later.

For homework this week:
“Knowing Your Rights” legal terms overview
“Is It Legal?”
“Concerning Releases”
Prepare a five-minute presentation about our project.

Left: The Web site of photographer Ava Johnson. Right: An untitled image from her series entitled “Good. Grief.” © Ava Johnson

Photographer, instructor, performer, and Center for Documentary Studies Public Information Coordinator, Ava Johnson visited our class in WEEK 5. I had the opportunity to meet Ava the previous Saturday when I attended the Ethics in Photography panel discussion at the White Lecture Hall (post here). Ava was one of three CDS instructors who facilitated the afternoon workshop with Duke students and a couple of CDS students.

Ava’s energy and passion for photography are evident as soon as you meet her. Just listening to her express her work and share her personal life experiences added a whole new dimension to seeing her work. That’s one of the beautiful things about getting to talk with artists while they share their work. Her enthusiasm was infectious and I couldn’t help but be motivated to go make pictures.

She shared some of her portfolio projects with us including “South of the Border”, a series of images made with Diana and Holga cameras that focused on the details of decay and disrepair of the classic freeway tourist trap. She also shared an incredibly poignant and genius series called “Recreations”, whereby she presented diptychs with family photographs on the left and recent photographs of her on the right in the same places, in the same poses. This series was especially great for me because it offered an intimate look into her family life. My favorite project is entitled “Good. Grief.” Ava shared that this series of images came about in the aftermath of a devastating apartment fire. Faced with moving to an area unfamiliar to she and her partner, she used her camera to document a time in her life where she was unsettled, both physically and emotionally. These images convey an amazing awareness of time and place and an almost haunting familiarity. Being able to listen to her describe these series of events was quite emotional for me.

Ava’s work is here.
Ava blogs here.

This week’s homework:
Glenn Hinson, “Crafting Fictions, Telling Truths: Creative Collaboration in the Photography of Roland L. Freeman”
Raphael Samuel, “Perils of the Transcript”
As told to Pamela Grundy by John B. McLendon, Jr., “‘A Position of Respect:’ A Basketball Coach Who Resisted Segregation”
Clarissa Sligh, “The Plaintiff Speaks” from Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography

Also for homework, create an elevator pitch for our project.