Small Towns, Black Lives: African American Communities in
Southern New Jersey on view at Atlantic City Airport’s: ArtPort
A thirteen year project documenting the small, historically African American, towns and settlements of the southern counties of New Jersey is now on exhibit at the Atlantic City Airport’s: ArtPort from February 7th till April 11th, 2011. The images are photographic and text based narratives of the contemporary lives and the historical traditions of the community. White’s Journey for Small Towns began in 1989, shortly after he relocated to the area to take a teaching position at Richard Stockton College. From his first visit to Cape May County’s Whitesboro, a community founded by black entrepreneurs in the post-Reconstruction era, White realized there was more to the story. Indeed, what evolved is the visual product of an artist’s passion with his subject but he has added many other ingredients, including interviews, history, and a sense of place. The story that White unfolds, while unique, contains themes that transcend specific locales and speaks to the experience of a people and of a nation. Present in this exhibition is a small sample of the total body of work.
Wendel White received a 2009-2010 En Foco New Works Photography Fellowship; a 2009 and 1993 Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts; a 2005 grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and in 2003 he was appointed a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
http://blacktowns.org/capemay/franklin_school/index.htm
