Dust Shaped Hearts - A Vision of Blues
Lecture Presented by Artist,
Donald E. Camp
© Donald E. Camp, Brother Who Taught Me to See - Mr. Herbert Camp, Casein and raw earth pigment on archival rag paper, Photographic Casein Monoprint, 30 x 22 inches, 1994
Lecture Date:
September 20, 2023
5:30 - 7:00 PM
Location:
The University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center & Zoom
Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, sixth floor
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
University of Pennsylvania Libraries
3420 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
*Open to the Public and on Zoom
In 1993, photographer Donald E. Camp started work on a series of photographic works titled Dust Shaped Hearts. The project was intended to be a sardonic statement about news reports of the threatened “extinction of the Black American male.” Drawing upon his experience as a photojournalist, this talk will explore how he re-defined the “newspaper headshot,” in order to go beyond stereotype and give thoughtful attention and permanence to the men he photographed. He chose to modify a 19th century casein and pigment process using earth (pigment) and milk (casein) as metaphor for the male and female. Combining these organic materials to make images parallels his observation that basic photography is biological, not mechanical.
To visit the event page, visit:
Dust Shaped Hearts - A Vision of Blues | Penn Libraries (upenn.edu)
Biography
Donald E. Camp has a strong reputation in Philadelphia with his work featured in museum collections and exhibitions in a number of respected institutions there and across the United States. In 1995, Camp was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship by the prestigious Pew Center for Arts and Heritage solidifying his reputation among scholars, critics, and patrons. He went on that same year to garner awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
With these endorsements of his work by some of the most important funders in the artistic community, Camp developed his signature work further to expand Dust Shaped Hearts, for which he has become known. Because Camp is a renowned artist and photographer, his work is appreciated and collected by patrons, critics, and institutions interested in photography, contemporary art, and African American artists. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at Ursinus College, where he had been an Artist in Residence for over 10 years and where there is a photography collection in his name.
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