Susan Harbage Page in Italy, and in North Carolina

Distinguished Southern Photographer Susan Harbage Page is opening a show of work from her Objects from the Borderlands: The US-Mexico "Anti-Archive" Project portfolio in Rome, at La Stellinia Arte Contemporanea (The Gallery of Contemporary Art) in Rome, Italy.

Harbage Page describes this work as capturing a "collection of objects found along the border between the United States and Mexico that witness a silent immigration that people do not want to see."

Harbage Page says she "began this work on the border after I heard a radio broadcast on National Public Radio. 

"They said that 20% more women and children than men die crossing the U.S.–Mexico border without official papers. I couldn’t get this statistic out of my head, so I decided to go see it with my own eyes. 

"I began to make yearly pilgrimages to the border to photograph the objects that are left behind by border-crossers. 

"The objects that I find speak of a difficult journey and the risks that these individuals are exposed to when they enter the United States. 

"I didn’t want to photograph the individuals in the traditional documentary manner—media and popular culture already do this. I wanted to show these left-behind objects as reliquaries, imbued with power." 

If you are in Rome, the Gallery is at 93 Via Braccio da Montone. There will be a reception and artist's talk at the Gallery on Friday, October  24th, 2014, at 6:00 in the afternoon.

We've discussed this work before, here and here, and it's really great to see this work receiving attention in another country where the possibility of a better life tempts large numbers of people to risk literally everything for the chance to pursue it.

Page is also busy this month, with work in two group shows in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area as part of the CLICK! Triangle Photography Festival.

 

The first is now up at Light Art + Design in Chapel Hill, and features photography by Taj Forer, Jimmy Fountain, Susan Harbage Page (see image above), Harrison Haynes, Jeff Whetstone, and Laura Williams.

This show is up through October 25th, 2014 at 601 West Rosemary Street, in Chapel Hill, open from 11:00 to 6:00 pm every day except Sundays and Mondays.

The second show is at the Flanders Gallery in  Raleigh, at  302 South West Street, up now through October 29th, 2014, on Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11:00 -6:00 pm

In addition to Harbage Page, this show of photographers and artists in other media includes the work of Derek Toomes, Damian Stamer, Lydia Anne McCarthy, Kenn Kotara, Ian F.G. Dunn, Bill Sullivan, Mia Yoon, Holly Fischer, Ashlynn Browning, Jason Craighead, and Peter Glenn Oakley.

Great to see Harbage Page becoming both a locally- and internationally-celebrated photographer!