Noted Maine photographer Séan Alonzo Harris’s Light Confirms My Reality is a community based photo project and exhibition in collaboration with faculty and students at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA) and the Charles Danforth Gallery. The exhibition, on view March 9 – April 4, 2022, includes selections from recent photographic projects including Visual Tensions, I Am Not A Stranger and The Space Between.
As Harris writes, “These projects are a proclamation of radical inclusivity, an invitation to see differently, and transform our images and perceptions of others. The photographic document serves to engage the critical issues of race and representation and to make visible the varied, full humanity and expansive beauty of Black people.”
Harris’s exhibition is comprised of several events, including a Community Art Project involving three workshops throughout the month of March, an artist’s Lunchtime Talk via zoom on March 9 from noon to 1:00 p.m., and a keynote discussion with the Portland Museum of Art’s Judy Glickman Lauder Associate Curator of Photography Dr. Anjuli Lebowitz on March 23, 2022, from 6 – 7 p.m. via zoom. An in-person closing reception is scheduled for March 30, 2022 from noon to 1:00 p.m.
Séan Alonzo Harris’s exhibition and related events are sponsored by UMA’s Cultural Events Council and the Charles Danforth Gallery.
“These projects are a proclamation of radical inclusivity, an invitation to see differently, and transform our images and perceptions of others.”
—Séan Alonzo Harris
About the Community Art Project
The exhibition connects to the community through an art project intended to create closer social connection. In the project, students will create photographs or other artworks as a means to explore their everyday surroundings, to see their communities anew, and illuminate the full humanity and beauty in their homes, neighborhoods and towns. The project will provide a platform to engage in creative expression and animate our communities’ connections.
A small group of engaged participants will work with Séan, Dr. Amy Rahn, Charles Danforth Gallery Director, and Peter Precourt in a series of three (two-hour) workshops to create, with Séan’s leadership, a collaborative project plan.
From the workshops, individuals will then go into the community and engage those they recognize by sight but know little about. Participation in this project will engage participants in seeing their fellow community members with humility, sincerity and open ears and open eyes.
Artist’s Informal Gallery Talk
Via Zoom Webinar, Wednesday, March 9, 12 – 1 p.m.
In this Zoom talk, the artist will discuss the series that comprise Light Confirms My Reality, and take questions from the audience.
Keynote Conversation between Séan Alonzo Harris and Dr. Anjuli Lebowitz
Via Zoom Webinar, March 23, 6 – 7 p.m.
This evening conversation between Séan Alonzo Harris and Dr. Anjuli Lebowitz, the Portland Museum of Art’s Judy Glickman Lauder Associate Curator of Photography, is sponsored by UMA’s Cultural Events Council and open to the public via Zoom webinar.
Closing Reception
Charles Danforth Gallery, Wednesday, March 30, 12 – 1 p.m.
This in-person closing reception (Covid conditions allowing), will include reflections from Séan Alonzo Harris on his experience with the exhibition and its surrounding events, including the community art project concurrent with the exhibition.
The exhibition, Sean Alonzo Harris: Light Confirms my Reality is on display in the Charles Danforth Gallery at the University of Maine at Augusta from March 9 – April 4, 2022. The public is welcome to visit the gallery in Jewett Hall, which is open on Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Funded by the UMA Cultural Events Council.
Follow Danforth Gallery on Facebook and Instagram, and view current, past and upcoming exhibitions at danforth.uma.edu.
Séan Alonzo Harris
Séan Alonzo Harris studied at the Art Institute of Boston. He then studied abroad in Italy and closer to home at Maine Media Workshops. He established his career in commercial, fine art and editorial photography in Maine, Boston and New York. He works with a broad range of editorial, educational and corporate clients including Mother Jones, Yankee Magazine, USA Today, LL Bean, Harvard Radcliffe Magazine, Atlantic Rethink, J.P. Morgan Chase and Cathay Pacific Airline. The artist’s professional practice includes teaching at Maine Media Workshops and collaborative, community-driven projects with nonprofit organizations. He has received multiple grants and awards from the Maine Arts Commission, a formal proclamation from the 121st Maine Legislature in recognition of his work and was named by Maine Magazine as one of the “60 Most Collectible Artists in Maine.”
Anjuli Lebowitz, PhD
Anjuli Lebowitz is the inaugural Judy Glickman Lauder Associate Curator of Photography at the Portland Museum of Art. She joined the PMA from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where she contributed to a number of collections, exhibition, and publication projects, including Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work, 1940-1950. She earned her doctorate in art history from Boston University and a B.A. from Williams College. Her research interests include photographic albums, historical processes, and African American photographic counter narratives.