Black Belt 100 Lenses Exhibit at UA Features Students’ Photos of Rural Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Black Belt 100 Lenses photo exhibit will showcase the work of high school students from Macon and Perry Counties with an opening reception Wednesday, Oct. 14, from 1-3 p.m. in The University of Alabama Crossroads Community Center.

Through the Black Belt 100 Lenses initiative, students examine the meaning of their cultures  through photography. Students in rural Alabama are asked to take photographs that depict the cultures and conditions of their communities.

The Black Belt 100 Lenses project, a partnership between the UA Center for Community-Based Partnerships and the Black Belt Community Foundation, was founded in 2007. The goal is to give Black Belt youth a voice and a forum to address issues that affect them and their communities.

This reception welcomes two more counties to the project, bringing the total to five. The other counties are Greene, Hale and Sumter. The Macon-Perry exhibit will end at Thanksgiving break. The next county to be featured is Bullock. The Crossroads Center is located on campus in the Ferguson Center.

Elliot A. Knight, a doctoral student in interdisciplinary studies from Opelika, is founder of the program and co-director with Whitney Green of the Black Belt Community Foundation in Selma.

The exhibit is a way to understand cultures that exist outside the immediate University community, Knight says. “These exhibits give us the chance to understand the culture and the history of the communities around the state through the eyes of young people, in this case those from Macon and Perry Counties, and can really give us a better understanding of the issues that are important to the next generation of leaders of our state,” he said.

Knight encourages those who come to the exhibit to look closely at the images to understand fully what each photo is saying. He and other UA students have worked with local schools and used “Photovoice,” a method for combining grassroots social action with candid photography of home, school, religion, business, farm and other institutions. The students of the local schools then present their photos at public exhibitions throughout the region.

Dr. Samory T. Pruitt, vice president for community affairs, calls 100 Lenses “one of the University’s best examples of engagement scholarship. High school students, college students, community partners, faculty and staff are all involved in a project that brings pride, value and understanding to an area of our state often negatively stereotyped. We are very proud of the work of Knight and Green, their student assistants and the students in the Black Belt schools.”

A goal of the program is to reach all 12 traditional Black Belt counties. For more information about the project and to access the students’ photos, see www.blackbelt100lenses.org