Usually social activists see the injustice first, then pick up the camera to fight it. For Gary Clark’s Essential Humanity Project the photographs came first; activism followed. An award-winning artist and teacher for more than 30 years, Clark was not “particularly political” when he began his project—an extended series of portraits of street people in New York City and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He had been curious about homeless people ever since he first saw them as a child driving through New York’s Bowery with his father. But it wasn’t until he bought his first digital camera five years ago that he decided to find out more about their lives. He wanted to make portraits. As soon as he started, he found out there was a lot more to this than just taking pictures.
| Posted By colorstalker on November 13, 2006 in Profile | Permalink Comments (2) |