EXPOSURES 2005

This summer, In-Sight Photography and the Hall Farm Center for Arts and Education collaborated once again to bring students from Vermont, the Bronx in New York, and the Navajo Reservation in Arizona to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, to join Lakota Sioux youth in making images and exploring each others’ cultures. Participants in this summer’s trip share their words and images about the experience. Photo by the group

“To everyone who made this trip possible, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you, for the generosity and the opportunities and patience and the perseverance that was put into this trip and permeated everything, every action and event on this trip. Its affected me deeply though maybe I can’t adequately express how yet, or even know myself”
Willow, a Marlboro College student volunteer

Photo by Michelle Tetreault

“What is foremost in my mind now is the sense of family I have come to feel towards the people on this trip and surrounding this place I have come to think of as home. That to me is one of the most amazing things: That a group of near strangers can come together and form a family in such a short time . . . I think I have grown, strengthened and changed out here and I have learned so much, about photography, Lakota culture, wholeness, humility, generosity and tradition. I would spend a month out here or a year learning about myself, and all of you and a way of life that our people have forgotten but our and has remembered.Thank you so much. This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.”
Hannah, a New York participant

“ Out of everything what surprised me most was what I learned about myself. I am at a point in life where I’ve been looking for inspiration, focus, or any kind of sign of what I’m going to do with myself. With that in mind the trip has proven itself to be invaluable if only because it has humbled me and shown me what I value in life. Now I feel I have an exponentially stronger sense of the kind of person I want to be.”
John L, a Vermont participant

Photo by Sara Andrews

“ I learned from each moment, each day, and each conversation. And now I can go home with memories; cultural enrichment, photography skills, trashy magazines and new recipes. More then anything, I felt a part of something, like I was working towards something real, something that mattered.”
Samia, a Vermont participant

To concerned people of the In-Sight, Hall Farm and Exposure groups, The following are my feelings in general. The time I spent with these photography groups was an enlightening experience. I’ve come away with deep appreciation and hope to have better results with photography. I’ve also had the opportunity to make some life long connections with community members of the Lakotas.

Photo by the group

Following is a general acknowledgement of “Exposure”
E = encouraging, energetic, enlightening, exciting, emphasis, elate
X = x-ray (Lolita’s), SiouX
P = preparing, photos, processing, problems, posing
O = opportunity, objects, ownership, open, over-exposed
S = sitting, seeing, silent, serious, sad, silly, “somehow”, Sundance, Sweatlodge
U = united, unanimous, underdeveloped, understanding, un-selfish, underexposed, unbelievable
R = reality, radiant, random, radical, romantic, rodeo
E = elegant, enduring, expose, empty, earnest, entity, eternal
Sincerely, Anita, a Navajo participant

Plans are under way for next summer’s Exposures program! For more information about Exposures, visit our website or call us at 251-9960 or 257-3397.