RALEIGH – For the first time ever, the best among North Carolina’s professional and amateur photographers will be showcased in a traveling exhibit organized by the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources from October 2008 through December 2009. The Telling Our Stories Photography Exhibit celebrates the 2008 Cultural Resources “Telling Our Stories” theme, and will be seen at public libraries statewide. It will include works by contemporary professional and amateur photographers, and archival photographs. The formal launch will be Oct. 16, at 1 p.m. at the Forsyth County Public Library.
In a collaboration, the top winners of the Our State magazine amateur photography contest will be presented. They capture the spirit of North Carolina through images of people, places, wildlife, and landscapes, in color and black and white photographs. For 75 years, Our State has chronicled the lives of North Carolinians, a shared value with Cultural Resources. A selection committee convened by Cultural Resources Secretary Lisbeth C. “Libba” Evans, chose from among works submitted by some of the state’s best professional photographers for the exhibit. These singular photographs examine nature, perceptions, spirituality, conflict, and the human condition, from across the state or across the planet.
Another first for the Telling Our Stories Photography Exhibit is the traveling of images from the North Carolina State Archives, part of the Department of Cultural Resources. The state’s collection includes more than three million images, from 1860s daguerreotypes to color images from the 1990s. Presidents, farmers, landmarks, war and peacetime are captured in the mostly black and white collection.
The State Library of North Carolina, within the Department of Cultural Resources, made the traveling exhibit available to public libraries that requested it. The exhibit will start in the east at the New Hanover Public Library in Wilmington on Oct. 3, and with a formal launch at the Forsyth County Public Library on Oct. 16. The exhibit will travel to public libraries in the state from the mountains to the coast. It will bring some of the state’s highest caliber photographic works to small and large venues.
These photographs focus a lens on our state at work and play, young and old, and reflect the many stories that can be told about our state. Some examine places and people in distant lands. The Telling Our Stories Photography Exhibit allows Cultural Resources to showcase some of the many ways the state’s stories can be told, and offers the opportunity to reflect, evaluate, appreciate, and project.
For additional information about the exhibit, call (919) 807-7389. To find information on the State Library of North Carolina, visit http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/NCSLHOME.HTM. The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources is a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Now podcasting 24/7 with information available at www.ncculture.com.