Bilingual Exhibit Features Gaston County Photographers

By KARA FOHNER, The Gaston Gazette

DALLAS, N.C. (AP) — A brand new, bilingual exhibit on the Gaston County Museum of Artwork and Historical past highlights the historical past of images, largely by way of the lenses of photographers from Gaston County.

The exhibit, titled “Into the Darkroom,” explores images, “not solely as a technological development, however as a contemporary artwork type,” mentioned museum curator Alicyn Wiedrich.

“And the large catalyst for me is that images is a kind of uncommon artwork mediums that captures … a second. And there are plenty of examples all through historical past the place images particularly modified how folks felt about societal points,” Wiedrich mentioned.

The exhibit features a show on Gaston County photographer Ennis Atkins, who was a photographer for The Gazette till 1947.

After he died, his property donated a set of 1000’s of his images to the museum, Wiedrich mentioned.

The exhibit additionally options work by Lewis Hine, who photographed kids working in textile mills in Gaston County and different areas. His images helped spur the event of kid labor legal guidelines in america.

Work by Rick Haithcox, a photographer who lives in Dallas, can also be featured prominently within the exhibit. Haithcox additionally donated supplies from his personal darkroom, an area used to develop pictures, to assist the museum create an genuine darkroom within the exhibit.

Haithcox “was very beneficial to placing this complete exhibit collectively,” Wiedrich mentioned.

The exhibit options historic artifacts that embody cameras and images from completely different factors in historical past, in addition to a timeline that reveals the historical past of images.

The ultimate part of the exhibit, which incorporates Haithcox’s darkroom, additionally has interactive options, together with an space the place guests might take images of themselves and cling them up within the exhibit.

Wiedrich mentioned that to make the exhibit totally bilingual — placing textual content all through in English and Spanish — was a deliberate determination that was shaped after dialog with a latinx group panel.

“And after I acquired on board, they advised me just about proper off the bat that … for Spanish audio system, it’s laborious for them to go locations like museums, as a result of you already know, once they get there, there’s nothing for them there. And so I actually needed to make this an inclusive expertise,” Wiedrich mentioned.

The exhibit shall be on show by way of July 2023.

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