Bob Goepfert's "The Arts Whisperer"

A friend recently sent me this fine posting about Battlesight from the blog of the Troy Record's arts editor.  How eloquently Bob relates his experience of viewing the exhibit:


There is an eerie beauty about the photographs individually and collectively. While I found myself being hypnotized by certain images - especially the 2007 photograph by Balazs Gardi which shows an Afghan man holding a wounded child - when I stood in the middle of the gallery and slowly turned 360-degrees I became immersed in the whole to the degree it felt like an out-of-body experience. The circle transported me not to Iraq or Afghanistan but to a surreal world where pain, fear and suffering was the norm. This place is called war.


The rest of the post is here.  (Scroll down the right sidebar there to the list of past postings.)


Battlesight is on exhibit through December 19 at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy.

Press: The Daily Gazette & Metroland

The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY), October 28, 2010 Photos capture physical,  emotional impact of war Views of Afghanistan, Iraq wars bring home reality Thursday, October 28, 2010 By Joanne McFadden TROY — One assignment, three different results,  all poignant statements about humanity. That’s what visitors to The Arts Center of the  Capital Region will see in “Battlesight:  Dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan by  International Photographers,” the debut  exhibition of the Center for Documentary Arts at The Sage Colleges. It will be on exhibit through Dec. 19. Timothy Cahill, founding director of the center, admits that there’s “something very  brave about launching a not-for-profit devoted to documentary art and compassion in  the midst of a great recession.” Yet he, along with founders Dr. Melvin Krant and  Steve Lobel, did just that. “Battlesight” goes to the heart of the center’s twofold mission: to use documentary  arts to bring viewers into the lives of other people and as a result increase awareness  of what we share as humanity and foster increased compassion for one another. In part, Cahill chose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the center’s first exhibition  because it will be on view at the same time as The Sage College’s Veterans Week  2010, and this was a way to highlight the activities of the center’s host institution.  Despite the subject matter, the exhibition is not a political statement. Neither it nor  the Center for Documentary Arts has a political agenda, Cahill said. He chose three photographers who had worked in Iraq or Afghanistan on  assignment to provoke a conversation about how documentary artists work and also to give the public a closer look at what is taking place in that region of the world. “I wanted the show to begin to be a dialogue about various ways these artists take reality and mold it into something that’s truthful and communicate that truth,” he said.  Full article here Metroland, October 28, 2010 ART MURMUR THIS IS WAR An exhibit opened at the Arts Center of the Capital Region (265 River St., Troy) last week that we all would do well to check out.  Curated by Timothy Cahill, Battlesight: Dispatches from Iraq and  Afghanistan by International Photographers is a powerful collection of war  photography by Pulitzer Prize winner Cheryl Diaz Meyer, Balazs Gardi  and Teru Kuwayama. The exhibit is on view through Dec. 19, but there  will be a reception tomorrow evening (Friday, Oct. 29) from 5:30-9 PM  during Troy Night Out. The battle for Iraq on view at the ACCR: Cheryl Diaz Meyer’s Dust Storm (2003).

Battlesight: Installation

Battlesight: Dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan by International Photographers
The Arts Center of the Capital Region, October 22 through December 19, 2010
Opening reception, October 29, 5-9 pm

Press Release

For Immediate Release 

October 4, 2010 

Battlesight: Dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan by International Photographers
October 22 – December 19 Reception: Friday, October 29, 5:30 – 9:00 P.M.

Free and Open to the Public

Presented by the Center for Documentary Arts in cooperation with The Arts Center of the Capital Region. 

Curated by Timothy Cahill

TROY, NY – The Arts Center of the Capital Region and the Center for Documentary Arts at The Sage Colleges is pleased to present Battlesight: Dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan by International Photographers, a new documentary photography exhibit opening in mid‐October. The exhibit is a powerful collection of wartime images from Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond by three renowned photographers whose work records the realities of life for combatants and civilians alike in lands far from most Americans’ view. The photographers, Cheryl Diaz Meyer, Balazs Gardi, and Teru Kuwayama, all international award recipients, represent a variety of approaches to contemporary photojournalism, from traditional news reportage to intimately interpretative documentary art. Battlesight is organized by Timothy Cahill, director of the Center for Documentary Arts, in cooperation with the Arts Center of the Capital Region and the Sage Colleges’ “Veterans Week 2010.”

Cheryl Diaz Meyer Dust Storm, Second Tank 

Battalion, U.S. Marines,  Iraq, 2003

Cheryl Diaz Meyer shared the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography with David Leeson for their “eloquent photographs depicting both the violence and poignancy of the war with Iraq,” made while both were senior staff photographers at The Dallas Morning News. Diaz Meyer covered the US‐led invasion of Iraq as an embedded journalist attached to the Second Tank Battalion of the First Marine Division. After the fall of Baghdad, she continued to cover the aftermath as a unilateral journalist. She has returned to Iraq numerous times, to cover the capture of Saddam Hussein and the infamous “spider hole,” the Al Mehdi death squads, the Iranian infiltration into Basra, and the regions tormented women, who set themselves on fire in an ancient practice of self-immolation. Diaz Meyer's work in Iraq was also awarded the Visa D’Or Daily Press Award 2003 at Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, France.

Balazs Gardi, Afghan man and wounded boy, 

Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, East Afghanistan,  2007

Balazs Gardi is a Hungarian photographer who documents the everyday life of marginalized peoples and communities facing humanitarian crises. He has photographed the effects of war in Afghanistan and Pakistan both as a unilateral journalist and embedded with troops from the United States, Canada, and Britain. His current long‐term project, “Facing Water Crisis,” examines, as he writes, “the vital yet destructive presence, crippling absence and strategic value of water worldwide.” Now working independently, Gardi was staff photographer at Nepszabadsag, Hungary’s largest national daily, from 1996 to 2003. He studied journalism and photography in Budapest and at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Among his numerous honors are the Prix Bayeux War Correspondents Award, the PX3 Photographer of the Year Award, three World Press Photo awards, a PDN Photography Prize, and the Global Vision Award from Pictures of the Year International. He is the recipient of grants from the Alexia Foundation for World Peace and Getty Images. He has photographed the effects of war in Afghanistan and Pakistan both as a unilateral journalist and embedded with troops from the United States, Canada, and Britain. His current long‐term project, “Facing Water Crises,” examines, as he writes, “the vital yet destructive presence, crippling absence and strategic value of water worldwide.” Now working independently, Gardi was staff photographer at Nepszabadsag, Hungary’s largest national daily, from 1996 to 2003. He studied journalism and photography in Budapest and at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Among his numerous honors are the Prix Bayeux War Correspondents Award, the PX3 Photographer of the Year Award, three World Press Photo awards, a PDN Photography Prize, and the Global Vision Award from Pictures of the Year International. He is the recipient of grants from the Alexia Foundation for World Peace and Getty Images.


Teru Kuwayama has published photographs in Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, Outside, Fortune, and Vibe, among other publications. His work on the Tibetan refugee diaspora received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace, and were exhibited at the United Nations and the Open Society Institute. The University at Albany graduate was named by Esquire as among the “Best and Brightest” of his generation for his reportage on the occupation of Iraq, and PDN included his work on Kashmir in a selection of 2005’s most iconic images in contemporary photography. In 2006 he received a Nikon Storyteller Award, a Days Japan International Photojournalism Award, and a W. Eugene Smith fellowship for his work in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Kuwayama is co‐founder of Lightstalkers, a professional and social network of photographers, media professionals, NGO workers, military personnel, and other “unconventional travelers.” He recently completed a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University and received a 2010 Knight News Challenge award. He is currently a 2010 TED Global Fellow and 2010 Ochberg Fellowship at Columbia University's DART Center for Journalism & Trauma.
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Teru Kuwayama, The ruins of Kabul, Afghanistan, 2002 

Timothy Cahill is founding director of the Center for Documentary Arts at The Sage Colleges, a cultural/educational initiative for using art to raise humanitarian awareness and foster compassion. The Center for Documentary Arts, established in 2009, defines “documentary art” as those narrative forms of photography, film, oral history, theater, painting, poetry, etc. that address social themes and bears witness to the human condition. The Center’s conviction is that this “witnessing art” is a vital tool for stimulating personal empathy and collective engagement. In addition to his work at CDA, Mr. Cahill is a writer, editor, and visual artist. He was the art critic and cultural reporter for the Albany Times Union from 1996 to 2006, and art correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor from 1995–2007. His writing has won numerous awards and honors, including a National Arts Journalism Program mid‐career fellowship at Columbia University. Mr. Cahill has exhibited his photography in journals, galleries, and museums. His photographs are in the permanent collection of the Albany Institute of History and Art.

Gallery Hours
Monday – Thursday | 11AM – 7PM 

Friday + Saturday | 9AM – 5PM 

Sunday | 12 – 4PM

About The Arts Center: For nearly 50 years, The Arts Center of the Capital Region has enriched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. A regional arts center, it offers classes, camps, exhibits and performing arts events. Artists of all ages and abilities are encouraged, mentored, and nurtured in a collaborative, supporting and accepting environment.

The Arts Center’s 36,000 square feet of space include discipline‐specific studios for pottery, printmaking, culinary arts, jewelry making, woodworking, painting and drawing, stained glass and dance, among others. It also includes a 99‐seat theater for performing arts events, and its three galleries are noted for their critically acclaimed contemporary exhibits.

Learn more about The Arts Center of the Capital Region and its offerings at www.artscenteronline.org .

Contacts: 

Timothy Cahill, Curator and Director of the Center for Documentary Arts 

cahillt@sage.edu  

(518) 292‐1951 

Caroline Corrigan, Exhibits Manager at The Arts Center of the Capital Region 

caroline@artscenteronline.org  

518.273.0552 x 222