Documentary Matters: April 1, 2020

D O C U M E N T A R Y   M A T T E R S   V I R T U A L

Wednesday, April 1, 2020
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Via ZOOM video conferencing.
Registration is required and limited to first 100 people. You must have ZOOM installed on your computer to participate. We will send a ZOOM registration link prior to the meeting.

 

Presented by Social Documentary Network and Digital Silver Imaging

This session of Documentary Matters is now filled.
If you signed up, you will receive instructions from us for the ZOOM meeting

Featured Presenters:

Mary Beth Meehan
Seeing Newnan

Coco McCabe
Clamtown


Watch video

 


Mary Beth Meehan

Mary Beth Meehan in Newnan, GA

Mary Beth Meehan in Newnan, Georgia in front of one of her images from "Seeing Newnan". Photo by William Widmer.

Mary Beth Meehan is an independent photographer, writer, and educator, who has spent more than twenty years embedding herself in communities across the United States. Beginning in her native New England, and continuing in the Midwest, South and in Silicon Valley, her work, combines image, text, and large-scale public installation and stems from her belief in a collaborative process that should function in and for the communities it reflects.

With each project, formal and informal events are organized to engage communities in civic dialogue about identity, access, visibility, inclusion, social equity, and other concerns. These events include walking tours, panel discussions, church and other community-group dialogues, and student-led interactions. Her most recent project, “Seeing Newnan,” was installed in this small Georgia town in April 2019.

Mary Beth has held residencies at Stanford University, the University of Missouri School of Journalism and at the University of West Georgia. She has lectured and led workshops at the School of Visual Arts, New York;  the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, in Boston; and the Missouri Photo Workshop. Mary Beth received a Master of Arts degree in photojournalism at the University of Missouri and now lives in Providence with her husband and two sons.

Seeing Newnan

In April 2018, Newnan, Georgia was in the national news when Neo-Nazis held a rally there against citizens’ wishes. One year later, Mary Beth installed massive yet intimate portraits of community members on the streets of the city’s downtown. As her celebrity-scale portraits were being installed in the Spring of 2019, conversation and controversy erupted – among neighbors and on social media – about Who Represents Newnan.

The work has already resulted in community-wide conversations about such topics as race, religion, ethnicity, inclusiveness, and diversity, and will be used as a springboard to engage the community throughout 2020.

Click here to view article in New York Times about Mary Beth's project "Seeing Newnan".


Coco McCabe

Photo by Coco McCabe
Photo by Coco McCabe from Clamtown.

Coco McCabe is a freelance photographer living in Ipswich, Massachusetts. As a longtime story-gatherer for Oxfam America, she photographed people in impoverished communities in Africa, East Asia, and Central America. More recently, she has focused on landscapes, street photography, and special projects such as documenting off-season beach communities and threats to New England’s magnificent coastal marshes. A former distance runner and current ocean rower, McCabe enjoys photographing outdoor subjects in all kinds of weather, the wetter and windier the better.

Clamtown

At a time when so may jobs are becoming automated, shipped to other countries, or swallowed by monopolies, clamming remains one of the few types of work individuals with drive and an independent spirit can still find: There are no degrees required and no bosses to report to. This collection of photos is a celebration of Ipswich clammers,  a mostly unseen corps of workers whose grit I deeply admire. 

Visit Coco's exhibit, Clamtown, on the SDN website.


Documentary Matters

Documentary Matters is an initiative of the Social Documentary Network and Digital Silver Imaging to provide a place for photographers to meet with others involved with or interested in documentary photography and discuss ongoing or completed project. This is a free and open meeting for anyone interested in presenting, viewing, or discussing documentary photography.

You don't need to be a professional, expert, or established--you just need to be committed to the documentary form and committed to learning from feedback from others. And you don't need to be a photographer or presenting your work to attend. Everyone is invited to join us, look, listen, and comment. Still photography, multimedia, and video encouraged. Documentary required.
 
Documentary Matters Registration
Click here to sign up to attend.

 


Subscribe to ZEKE magazine

ZEKE Magazine
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SDN and ZEKE magazine announce Call for Entries for the 2020 ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography

ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography

First place winner(s) to receive: 

  • Solo exhibition of winning projects at Photoville 2020, September 10-20, Brooklyn, NY. SDN will cover all printing, mounting, and installation expenses. (Printing and mounting provided by Digital Silver Imaging)
  • Recognized at an awards reception during Photoville.
  • Up to $1,000 in travel expenses to attend Photoville.
  • Featured in the fall 2020 issue of ZEKE magazine.
  • Click here to view full list of benefits for first place and honorable mentions.

Full details on 2020 ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography and to enter.