Five winning photo series showing at Bronx Documentary Center
A new photo exhibit at the Bronx Documentary Center, in Melrose casts a spotlight on the acclaimed Social Documentary Network, an online website dedicated to telling compelling stories from around the world through photography.
Photos from the site’s winning entries for 2015 are featured in in Visual Stories Exploring Global Themes, which officially opened on May 22 in the gallery on Courtlandt Avenue. An opening reception was held on May 30.
Glenn Ruga, the website’s founder and director, described in detail the stories depicted by the five photographers whose work is on display at the gallery.What makes Social Documentary Network unique among photo-based websites, Ruga explained, is that all submissions are carefully screened prior to being uploaded, to ensure the website’s specific criteria is met and its mission fulfilled.
“We received a little over a hundred submissions,” said Ruga, explaining that the goal of the site is not just to show striking photos, but to weave them together to create narratives from those pictures.
“It’s not just the images, it’s also about these important themes,” said Ruga. Photographers are asked to submit at least six photos and captions, along with an abstract describing the overall theme they are hoping to depict. Together, the submissions should tell “a compelling story about an issue related to the human condition.”
The themes on display at the Documentary Center through June 7 tell stories of the perils endured by undocumented Central Americans who come north; rising fascism in Europe; racism against the Roma people; the abduction of schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Boko Haram extremist group; and the power of faith.
While jazz filled the 1,000 square foot gallery during the opening, visitors took in the array of global themes.
“I love this exhibit,” said Joel Zetino, a Bronx native who lives a few blocks away from the Documentary Center.”It’s a shock to me,” said Zetino, adding that the photos opened his eyes to hardships and conflicts of which he had been unaware.
Two of the five photographers, Åke Ericson and Glenna Gordon, attended the opening.
“It’s one thing to see it on the internet and it’s another thing to see it in a physical space,” said Gordon, whose “Abducted Nigerian Schoolgirls” features 13 photographs depicting common household items owned by the kidnapped girls, such as clothing and letters.
Guests leaving the gallery at the end of the evening said they were very impressed with what they had seen.
“It’s really gorgeous and profound in different ways,” said Kristen Kenter, who said this was her first visit to the center.
“If you walk out of here without thinking of something differently, then you didn’t look at anything,” she said.
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