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| Vol. 18, No. 2 | Sept. 10, 1998 |
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| Vol. 18, No. 2 | Sept. 10, 1998 |
Every day I walk down the street, I walk down the street,
Walk with my particular beat;
This is my world, it's my concrete.
I look around and what do I see?
The corner mailbox, a fenced-in tree,
My every day reality
The things that tell the story of me, the story of me, the story of me!
The opening song of Landmarks: The Musical by Joyce Hill Stoner, art conservation, and James J. Weber captures the spirit of a number of International Landmarks photography projects, that have been sponsored by the Getty Conservation Institute.
Picture L.A. (1994), Picture Cape Town (1996), Picture Mumbai (Bombay, 1997), Picture Mexico City (1997) and Picture Paris (1998) were exhibitions of photographs of those cities taken by teenagers from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Add to these Picture Delaware: Landmarks of a New Generation, inspired by the Getty projects but co-sponsored by 10 non-profit Delaware institutions. This special exhibition of 64 photographs taken by 13 Delaware teenagers throughout the state will be on display at the Delaware Art Museum from Oct. 2 through Nov. 29.
Six performances of the musical Landmarks will accompany the photography exhibition.
Shows are scheduled at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 2; Sunday, Oct. 4; and Saturday, Oct. 24; and at 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10; Sunday, Oct. 18 and Sunday, Oct. 25 at the museum.
Tickets are $10 for the general public, $8 for seniors and $5 for students. For information and reservations, call Stoner at 831-8092.
Stoner serves on Getty's Visiting Committee, and she was instrumental in getting Picture Delaware under way, with assistance from Stephen Bruni of the Delaware Art Museum and a special ventures grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
In the original "picture" project in 1994, nine young people from different backgrounds in Los Angeles were equipped with cameras and given instructions. They then documented the personal and social landmarks of their respective worlds, and the resulting exhibition and catalog were so successful that the project was followed by other Getty-supported efforts in cities around the world.
These, in turn, generated interest in other self-supported "picture" projects, including the one in Delaware and another in Salzburg, Austria.
Three UD faculty and two students were involved in Picture Delaware. Stoner is the coordinator; Martha Carothers, art, has created the exhibition catalog with the help of Keith Johnson (AS '98) and Thomas Jones (AS '98); and Debra Hess Norris, art conservation, has shared her photographic materials conservation expertise with the participants.
Bob McAteer, a professional photographer who is now teaching photography in California, was appointed artistic director, and Lecia McDermott, who has worked with several youth groups in the area, was selected as administrative director. The two interviewed 77 young people who had been recommended by schools and community centers. From these, 13 teenagers, aged 12-17, were selected from all over the state. They are LeAnn Austin from Newark; Justine Brooks-Ward from Bethany Beach; Philip Harris and Ricardo Irizarry from Dover; Teia Johnson from Selbyville; Cynthia Lan, Fabian Richards and Corey Stansbury from Wilmington; Jason Nickle from Claymont; Rastafari Oney from Georgetown; Kerry O'Reilly from Hockessin; Chrissy Owens from Seaford; and Michael Rios from Smyrna.
The group had monthly meetings in Dover at the Delaware State University Gallery. As McAteer wrote in the catalog, "Lecia and I used question-and-answer games to get their creative juices flowing and to get them used to expressing their ideas verbally as well as photographically."
The next order of business was learning about their cameras and photography. The teens then "went out to explore their individual visions," McAteer wrote.
From December 1997 through May 1998, the participants took photographs. The contact sheets were critiqued at the monthly meetings, and advice on angles and light was interspersed with discussions on foregrounds and backgrounds. The group also went on field trips to hone their skills. Parents became interested and involved in the project as well and helped with such things as transportation.
Most of the photographs were positive images, and McAteer wondered why the teenagers did not show Delaware's "underbelly."
The response from the photographers was that this was the way they saw the state. Unlike other exhibitions, "Picture Delaware" features largely non-urban scenes.
An extension of the Delaware program is that the teen photographers go into classrooms and share their skills with younger students, who are given disposable box cameras to record their "landmarks," Stoner said.
Another benefit of the "picture" exhibitions is that they attract groups of people who ordinarily do not frequent museums but who may be interested in exhibitions featuring local talent, Stoner said.
The 64 photographs for the exhibition were chosen by a jury from among hundreds of selections.
As McAteer wrote in the catalog, the young photographers "have given this state and its future generations quite possibly the most heartfelt, richly textured and honest portrayal of Delaware ever created."
Stoner's musical revue is inspired by all the "picture" exhibits and will feature six teenage performers from different backgrounds, while photographs from the Delaware and other "picture" projects are projected on a screen overhead.
One song is about a young man from Los Angeles, who unsuccessfully tried to break away from his neighborhood and background but was eventually killed in a gang war.
Other musical numbers celebrate neighborhoods and landmarks, families, nature, industry and buildings. One song is about bridges, set against a photograph of the new St. Georges bridge taken from inside a car.
What is a bridge? A line across the sky,
A type of connection, a link, a tie.
Across a river, a chasm, a bay
Could we build a bridge to a better sort of day?
The cast includes Stansbury, one of the Picture Delaware photographers, and Megan Armstead, Brandon Burk, Shayla Caple, Wayland T. Harris and Elizabeth Petruccelli, all from the Wilmington area.
Picture Delaware received support from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Longwood Foundation, the Delaware Division of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, MBNA America, the Welfare Foundation, Conectiv, Modern Press and Star Enterprise.
Buckley Photo Lab, Cameras Etc. and First State Photo also lent support to the program.
-Sue Swyers Moncure
