Also this issue: Bill Cosby -Nancy Armstrong World AIDS Day -Kristina Weise Fairies, Brownies and Trolls -Paul Burress

November 27-December 3, 2002

list cap

Stepping Through The Ashes

Photojournalist Eugene Richards opens our eyes to the overlooked humanity afflicted by poverty, drug addiction and gun violence, by capturing the fragility of faces through his lens. His recent work, “Stepping Through the Ashes,” is a collaboration with documentary film producer Janine Altongy, presenting the breathtaking aftermath of Sept. 11 through Richards’ photographs and Altongy’s interviews with their subjects. Richards refers to Ground Zero as an “ever-evolving repository for the missing, a focal point for grieving, for remembering, for reflection, for self-examination.” He received a Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Journalism Award, as well as the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Award, for his coverage of the disadvantaged, ranging from those in emergency room care to those in extreme destitution. Altongy is a certified social worker, writer and video editor whose previous collaborations with Richards have created a fundraising book and film about Incarnation Children’s Center, a New York City residence for children with HIV and AIDS. A special presentation by Altongy and Richards will mark the exhibit’s opening this week, exploring the pair’s methods while showing the power that photography possesses.

--Kristina Weise

“Stepping Through the Ashes,” opening lecture, Thu., Dec. 4, noon-1 p.m., Connelly Auditorium, University of the Arts, 211 S. Broad St. Exhibit runs Tue.-Sun., Dec. 5-Feb. 2, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., free (donations encouraged), Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th St., 215-545-4302.

—Juliet Fletcher