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from Wednesday, November 7 to Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - What We Look Like : Instantanés californiens

Collège Universitaire de Sciences Po - Campus Euro-Américain de Reims - Ancien Collège des Jésuites 1, place Museux - 51100 Reims
The Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Embassy in Paris is pleased to announce the opportunity of a new traveling exhibit and educational program entitled “What We Look Like: American Photographs” / “What We Look Like: Instantanés Californiens”. Through a grant agreement with University of San Diego Professor of Visual Art and photographer Duncan McCosker, this exhibition is suitable for display in public venues (American centers, schools, universities, galleries, libraries, historical societies, etc).
“What We Look Like” is a collective portrait of a quintessential American ritual and life over three decades (1978-2011). It consists in 24 large scale photographs from County fairs in Southern California: housewives, young teenage boys and girls, grandparents and their grandchildren, complete strangers who happen to meet by accident, and an entire gamut of American types that share the same stage. They represent an endless variety of races, ages, social classes, occupations, ethnicities, and religions. This selection of 30 prints is organized in a way that suggests chronologically the cultural and demographic shifts that mirror the passage of America's shifting values. By covering three decades, McCosker’s pictures show how U.S. society's shifts, often subtle and almost invisibly when seen daily, become apparent in photographic descriptions across time. The emphasis is put on people as they are seen in the crowds, small groups and as individuals, and situated against the background of signs, symbols, and material references. In their aggregate, such pictures constitute an image of a society.
This exhibit was previously presented at the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington D.C.; the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; the Worcester Museum and the Chrysler Museum, Worcester, Mass. In France, it will be presented in Valenciennes, Toulouse, Cahors, Reims, and Bordeaux.
For more information, please click here.
Reims, Nov 7-Nov 28, 2012
Collège Universitaire de Sciences Po - Campus Euro-Américain de Reims
Ancien Collège des Jésuites
1, place Museux
51100 Reims
http://college.sciences-po.fr/sitereims/
Bordeaux in February 2013
Le Rocher de Palmer
1 Rue Aristide Briand - 33150 Cenon
http://lerocherdepalmer.fr/