Category Archives: Archive of Documentary Arts

Archive of Documentary Arts, Audiovisual Materials, Events, Readings and Talks

2015 Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Visiting Artist: Nate Larson

October 19, 2015 John Gartrell 1 Comment

Reception & Artist’s Talk

Date: November 5

Time: 6:00-8:00 pm

Location: Center for Documentary Studies, 1317 W. Pettigrew St, Durham, NC

In October 2015, the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library will welcome Nate Larson as the second Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Artist. Named in honor of Dr. Diamonstein-Spielvogel, a prolific author, interviewer, curator, and champion of the arts, this new artist-in-residence program provides an extended opportunity for an artist to study and engage with archival, manuscript and other special collections in support of developing a new body of creative work.

Nate Larson is a contemporary artist working with photographic media, artist books and digital video. His projects have been widely shown across the US and internationally as well as featured in numerous publications and media outlets, including Wired Raw File, The Picture Show from NPR, Slate, CNN, Hyperallergic, Gizmodo, Buzzfeed News, Vice Magazine, the New York Times Lens Blog, Flavorwire, the BBC News Viewfinder, Frieze Magazine, the British Journal of Photography, The Washington Post, and Art Papers. His artwork is included in the collections of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Orlando Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago. Additionally, Larson holds a full‐time academic appointment in the photography department at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and chaired the 2014 national conference of the Society for Photographic Education.

Larson will be in residence at the Rubenstein Library October 26-November 22, 2015. During this time, Larson will meet with scholars, students and staff from across the academic disciplines at Duke and conduct his own research. Larson will give an Artist’s Talk about his work to date at the Center for Documentary Studies on November 5, 2015 from 6:00-8:00pm.

The event is free and open to the public and made possible through the generous support of Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel. Larson’s visit is jointly organized and sponsored by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the Center for Documentary Studies, and the Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts Program at Duke University.

Contact – Lisa McCarty, lisa.mccarty@duke.edu

Image below by Nate Larson & Marni Shindelman from the series Geolocation

Post submitted by Lisa McCarty, Curator, Archive of Documentary Arts

Archive of Documentary Arts, Bingham Center, Events, Featured, Franklin Research Center, From Our Collections, Hartman Center, History of Medicine, Human Rights Archive, Just for Fun, Manuscripts, News and Features, Rare Books, University Archives

Screamfest III: The Cutening

October 12, 2015 Amy McDonald

Date: Thursday, October 29, 2015
Time: 2:00-4:00 PM
Location: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room
Contact: Amy McDonald, amy.mcdonald@duke.edu

Y’all, we hear you. The semester is getting more and more intense and sometimes Duke is just so . . . gothic, you know? Sometimes you just need to eat some free candy and look at cute things. And what better time to do that than in celebration of that traditionally cute holiday, Halloween?

Your cuddly Rubenstein librarians would like to invite you to visit us for Screamfest III, an open house featuring ~~creepy~~ ADORABLE things from our collections.

Like this postcard of these sweet black kitty-cats, bringing you Halloween joys in their happy hot air pumpkins.

Or this illustration of these precious babies from our History of Medicine Collection’s Opera Omnia Anatomico-Medico-Chirurgica by Frederik Ruysch. Yes, fine, they’re skeleton babies, and they’re standing on a pile of human organs, but they’re totally listening to a song by The Wiggles.

You can also page through the 1984 Chanticleer to view the photos of this friendly library ghost, who just wants to bring you fuzzy slippers so you can study comfortably.

And sure, scourge and sword-wielding demons are very scary when they’re life-sized. But swing by our open house and you’ll be able to bravely make kissy-faces at this little dude (paperclip for scale) from the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Role-Playing Games.

In fact, we promise that there will be so much cuteness (and candy) that, well, you might die. See you there!

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Featured, From Our Collections

Archive of Documentary Arts Photobook Club Meeting

March 31, 2015 John Gartrell

Archive of Documentary Arts Photobook Club Meeting

Date: Tuesday, May 5, 6:00-7:30 p.m.

Location: Center for Documentary Studies Library, 1317 W Pettigrew Street, Durham, NC 27707

Join us for the third meeting of The Archive of Documentary Arts Photobook Club where we will be discussing Henri Cartier-Bresson’s, The Decisive Moment.

Book Discussion Group, Free and Open to the Public, byo beverage and/or snack

The book is on reserve for public use prior to the meeting in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Examine these editions for yourself in person, and/or read more about the book and Cartier-Bresson online at the links below:

Time The Guardian Magnum Photos

**Please note – Discussion will take place at the Center for Documentary Studies while the books themselves are held at The Rubenstein Library.**

Contact: Lisa McCarty, Curator of the Archive of Documentary Arts | lisa.mccarty@duke.edu

Archive of Documentary Arts, Bingham Center, Events, Featured, Franklin Research Center, From Our Collections, Hartman Center, History of Medicine, Just for Fun, Manuscripts, News and Features, University Archives

Crazies in Love: A Valentine’s Open House

February 4, 2015 Amy McDonald

Date: Thursday, February 12, 2015
Time: 3:30-5:00 PM
Location: Room 217, Perkins Library
Contact: Amy McDonald, amy.mcdonald@duke.edu

Dearest readers and friends, we long to see you on Valentine’s Day. Won’t you please set our hearts a-flutter and come to our Valentine’s Day open house?

Do you fear that you will be too busy penning epistles of undying love to your own beloveds to join us? Ah, but this event is crafted especially for you: we’ll be sharing the most swoon-worthy of love declarations from the Rubenstein Library’s collections, so you may find just the term of endearment you need to woo your mate.

Perhaps a few examples to help the time pass more swiftly until we meet?

We’re charmed by the simplicity of this short note from the scrapbook of Odessa Massey, Class of 1928:

Note from Odessa Massey's scrapbook — From the Odessa Massey Scrapbook, 1924-1928.

Or the more expressive route taken by Francis Warrington Dawson—writing to Sarah Morgan, his future wife–is always sure to succeed:

Letter from Francis Warrington Dawson to Sarah Morgan, February 10, 1873. From the Dawson Family Papers. — Letter from Francis Warrington Dawson to Sarah Morgan, February 10, 1873. From the Francis Warrrington Dawson Family Papers.

“How deeply should I thank God that he has allowed me to know you, which is to love you, for the sun now has a brighter light & the sky a deeper blue. The whole world seems truer & better, & this pilgrim, instead of lingering in the depths, is breasting the healthy difficulties of existence, with his eyes fast fixed on you. Whatever else may fail, believe always in this devoted & unselfish love of Francis Warrington Dawson!”

Or whose heart wouldn’t melt upon receiving this most adorable valentine, from our Postcard Collection:

Valetine, undated. From the Postcard Collection. — Valentine postcard, undated. From the Postcard Collection.

And there might even be tips on how to present yourself when you present your valentine!

Barbasol advetisement, 1944. http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess_BH0643/

Have we convinced you yet? What if we mention that there will be chocolate and candy?

Until next Thursday,

Your Rubenstein librarians

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Featured, Films, Franklin Research Center, Human Rights Archive

Rights! Camera! Action! Presents: “The One Who Builds”

February 2, 2015 John Gartrell

Rights! Camera! Action! Presents: “The One Who Builds” (2013)

Directors: Hillary Pierce, Peter Carolla, and Nick Gooler

Total Running Time: 40 minutes

Date: Wednesday, February 5, 2015

Time: 7:00-9:00 PM

Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, FHI Garage

The One Who Builds is a film about the life and work of Dr. Omer Omer, once a Sudanese refugee, now an American citizen who is paying it forward as the director of a refugee resettlement organization. Through the North Carolina African Services Coalition in Greensboro, Omer has transcended boundaries dictated by society, race and religion to build a new village, one friendship at a time.

Co-Directors Hillary Pierce, Peter Carolla, and North Carolina African Services Coalition Executive Director Million Mekonnen will lead a panel discussion will follow the screening.

Presented by the Duke Human Rights Center@FHI, John Hope Franklin Research Center, Human Rights Archive and Archive of Documentary Arts, Rubenstein Library, and Screen/Society

For more information please contact: John B. Gartrell, 919-660-5922, john.gartrell@duke.edu

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Featured, Films, Human Rights Archive

Rights! Camera! Action! Presents “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator” (2011)

January 19, 2015 Kate Collins

Date: Thursday January 22, 2014
Time: 7:00-9:00pm
Location: FHI Garage, Bay 4, Smith Warehouse
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, 2011 (Total Running Time: 103 minutes)
Directors: Director: Pamela Yates Producers: Paco de Onis

In a stunning milestone for justice in Central America, a Guatemalan court recently charged former dictator Efraín Rios Montt with genocide for his brutal war against the country’s Mayan people in the 1980s — and Pamela Yates’ 1983 documentary, When the Mountains Tremble, provided key evidence for bringing the indictment. Granito: How to Nail a Dictator tells the extraordinary story of how a film, aiding a new generation of human rights activists, became a granito — a tiny grain of sand — that helped tip the scales of justice.

The screening will begin at 7 p.m. A panel discussion with Director Pamela Yates and Producer Paco de Onis follows the screening. Date:

Sponsors: Duke Human Rights Center@ FHI, the Human Rights Archive, and the Archive of Documentary Arts and Screen/Society. Cosponsored by Commissioning Truths, a Trent Foundation project.

For further information contact Patrick Stawski, Duke University patrick.stawski@duke.edu 919-660-5823.

Archive of Documentary Arts, Featured, From Our Collections, New at the Rubenstein Library, New Finding Aids, Technical Stuff

Divine Works: Expressions of Faith in Two Religious Communities as Seen in the Photographs of Kristin Bedford

January 13, 2015 Katrina Martin 1 Comment

A body of color photography by Kristin Bedford recently acquired as part of the Rubenstein Library Archive of Documentary Arts offers striking images of religious practices in two very different communities of faith, and at the same time challenges cultural stereotypes of African-American worship. The two projects that came out of her experience are titled “Be Still: A Storefront Church in Durham,” and “The Perfect Picture.”

While an MFA student at Duke University, Bedford visited and photographed adults and children in the urban congregation of the Apostolic Deliverance Rebirth Outreach Ministries in Durham, North Carolina for a period of ten months. During worship, she sat in the pews among the congregants, capturing in these rich color portraits what she calls “stillness, contemplation, and the moments between the moments.”

Bedford-B-eStill-Cario — Cario, September 30, 2012

Bedford-Be Still-Larya — Larya, March 17, 2013

Bedford-BeStill-Quadir — Quadir, February 10, 2013

Credit: Kristin Bedford photographs, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

Bedford’s approach to joining these worshippers while photographing them also informed her stay with a utopian community founded by Father Divine in the 1930’s, whose members call themselves the “International Peace Mission Movement.” Bedford lived and worked with the community for five weeks in the summer of 2013 at their estate near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She documented their faith as it is lived out in everyday acts of racial harmony and guided by the divine nature of work: a form of the medieval commandment of “ora et labora.” Bedford came away with extraordinary views of a community that remains devout and committed to the movement despite a declining membership. She titled this project “The Perfect Picture,” an acknowledgment of Father Divine’s credo that the act of taking a photograph is akin to the faith-driven act of striving for unity and perfection in life.

Bedford-PerfectPicture — The Perfect Picture

Bedford-PerfectPicture-Ornaments — Mother and Father Divine Ornaments for “American Christmas”

Bedford-PerfectPicture-FathersEstate — Father’s Estate, “The Mountain of the House of the Lord”

Credit: Kristin Bedford photographs, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

The photographs and supporting materials in “Be Still: A Storefront Church in Durham,” and “The Perfect Picture,” are available for research use in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. An online guide has been prepared for the collection. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.

Post contributed by Lisa McCarty, Curator of the Archive of Documentary Arts, and Paula Jeannet Mangiafico, Visual Materials Processing Archivist.

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Featured, From Our Collections

Event: The Archive of Documentary Arts Photobook Club

January 12, 2015 Katrina Martin

Tuesday, January 27, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Center for Documentary Studies Library, 1317 W Pettigrew Street, Durham, NC 27707

Join us for the second meeting of The Archive of Documentary Arts Photobook Club where we will be discussing Helen Levitt’s first photobook, A Way of Seeing.

Book Discussion Group, Free and Open to the Public, byo beverage and/or snack.

HL new york 1940 — New York, 1940 (Fraenkel Gallery)

Three editions are on reserve for public use prior to the meeting in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Examine these editions for yourself in person, and/or read more about the book and Ms. Levitt online at the links below:

NY Times Lens Blog, The Telegraph, Fraenkel Gallery

**Please note – Discussion will take place at the Center for Documentary Studies while the books themselves are held at The Rubenstein Library.**

Contact: Lisa McCarty, Curator of the Archive of Documentary Arts | lisa.mccarty@duke.edu

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Featured, Readings and Talks

Tomorrow! Sound performance by lowercase music pioneer Steve Roden

October 20, 2014 Meghan Lyon

Tuesday, October 21, 7:30pm
The Carrack Modern Art
111 W Parrish St., Durham
Cost: Free!

Steve Roden—a renowned sound artist, painter, writer, and collector of photographs and 78s—is in residence at Duke this month. He’s giving a talk and visiting classes, but this is the only performance he’s giving of his lowercase style of music in which quiet, usually unheard, sounds are amplified to form complex and rich soundscapes.

Roden’s solo exhibitions include the Chinati Foundation, Marfa; the Henry Art Museum, Seattle; and the San Francisco Art Institute. Roden has been part of group exhibitions at the Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Mercosur Biennial in Porto Allegre, Brazil; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; the Serpentine Gallery, London; the Sculpture Center, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou Museum, Paris; and Miami MOCA, Miami. Check out his website here and more examples of his work here, and be sure to come tomorrow to hear him perform!

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Featured, From Our Collections

Archive of Documentary Arts Photobook Club

September 23, 2014 John Gartrell

Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Time: 6:00-7:30 PM

Location: Center for Documentary Studies Library | 1317 W Pettigrew Street, Durham, NC 27707

Robert Frank, The Americans — Robert Frank, *The Americans*

Join us for the inaugural meeting of The Archive of Documentary Arts Photobook Club where we will be discussing Robert Frank’s groundbreaking photobook, The Americans.

Book Discussion Group, Free and Open to the Public, byo beverage and/or snack

Three editions are on reserve for public use prior to the meeting in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library (click here for directions):

http://search.library.duke.edu/search?id=DUKE005688815

http://search.library.duke.edu/search?id=DUKE004942094

http://search.library.duke.edu/search?id=DUKE004655891

Examine these editions for yourself in person, and/or read more about them online at the links below:

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2009/frank/index.shtm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100688154

https://www.lensculture.com/articles/robert-frank-the-americans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHtRZBDOgag

**Please note – Discussion will take place at the Center for Documentary Studies while the books themselves are held at The Rubenstein Library.**

Contact: Lisa McCarty, Curator of the Archive of Documentary Arts | lisa.mccarty@duke.edu | 919-681-7963