Documentarian's work is focus of new Baldwin Photo Gallery exhibit, March 30 MTSU Zoom panel

Mar 15, 2021 at 07:30 am by WGNS

Documentary photographer Morrie Camhi's image of "Kenneth X. White, Prisoner in His Cell, 1987," depicts a young man checking his physique in a mirror in his cell at the California State Prison at Vacaville, part of Camhi's "The Prison Experience" collection. This photo is among those in a new exhibit in MTSU's Baldwin Photographic Gallery, "An Eye Towards Justice," on display through Thursday, April 15. The exhibit and Camhi's work also arethe subject of an online panel discussion with MTSU faculty experts set for Tuesday, March 30, at 6:30 p.m. Central. (photo by Morrie Camhi)

A new exhibit in MTSU's Baldwin Photographic Gallery, "An Eye Towards Justice," captures the work of documentarian Morrie Camhi through excerpts of two of his thought-provoking photo collections: "The Prison Experience" and "Faces and Facets: The Jews of Greece."  

"An Eye Towards Justice" is on display weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through Thursday, April 15, in Room 269 of the university's Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, 1735 Blue Raider Drive. Gallery guests must wear masks and observe appropriate distancing and other posted health safety protocols. 

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Camhi and his work also are the subject of an online conversation with a multidisciplinary group of MTSU faculty experts planned for Tuesday, March 30, at 6:30 p.m. Central. Guided by gallery curator and Department of Media Arts assistant photography professor Shannon Randol, the Zoom talk will include: 

• Aleka Blackwell, a Department of English associate professor and founding faculty member of MTSU’s Literacy StudiesPh.D. Program. 

• Mitzie Forrest, a lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice Administration and a former crime analyst and corrections officer. 

• Vicki Harden, an assistant professor in the Department of Social Work who also coordinates its Master of Social Work degree program. 

• Sonja Hedgepeth, a professor in the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures who specializes in German Hebrew. 

• Cathy McElderry, chair of MTSU’s social work department. 

Participants can join the event at https://mtsu.zoom.us/j/86915503012i. 

The gelatin silver prints in Cahmi’s Baldwin Gallery exhibit include images of individual Jewish people living in various places in Greece and the lives and concerns of prisoners in the California State Prison at Vacaville.  

Camhi was born in New York City in 1928, a descendant of Greek Sephardic Jews. He majored in English literature at UCLA, working his way through school as a lab technician, then commenced a self-taught career in commercial photography in Petaluma, California. 

In 1969 he sold his business and began focusing on documentary work, later teaching photography at City College of San Francisco. Camhi traveled extensively, shot and exhibited photos, taught and mentored other photographers and was a respected, socially conscious member of the Petaluma business and art communities until his death in 1999. 

Camhi’s work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and in Chicago and New York as well as galleries and museums in Europe, Israel, Japan and New Zealand. His photographs have also been published in many books and photography journals.

MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery is part of the university’s College of Media and Entertainment and is located on the second floor of the Bragg Building at the top of the main stairwell.  

The gallery is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays when MTSU classes are in session. Public tours can be arranged by contacting Randol at shannon.randol@mtsu.edu.  

More Information:

For more information about MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery, visit:  
http://baldwinphotogallery.com or http://www.facebook.com/BaldwinPhotoGallery.

Parking Locations:

A campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParking2020. Off-campus guests visiting the Baldwin Gallery should obtain a special one-day permit from MTSU’s Office of Parking and Transportation at http://www.mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php.

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