Exploring the world through a new lens…
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” - Lilla Watson
When photographers Sara Bennet and Anna Grevenitis approached Providence House with the idea to provide free workshops to our residents, we jumped at the opportunity. Photography is a powerful medium for artistic expression that allows people to better understanding the world around them, while providing a way to show others the world they see.
“That is what made this project so special,” said Anna Grevenitis. “These women broke out of a shell with a camera. They were able to explore the world through a new lens. When we started our photography workshop at K-Street, our goal was to provide women a creative outlet through photography. Tanika and Kaii, whose work is on view here, were dedicated attendees of the eight-week workshop. Neither had ever held a DSLR camera, but both took to it immediately, unafraid to experiment with their donated cameras and with their subject matter.
As the weeks went by, their visual sense emerged, and we were able to watch them develop their unique way of capturing their family, friends and neighborhood. Through their eyes, we see the too-often-unseen empathetic lens of those living in permanent supportive housing. Serenity and Paradise in the Hood make us stop and marvel as to what New York City would look like if supportive housing were present in every neighborhood.
This project has been a resounding success. According to Sara Bennet, “the key to this success is that the workshops were not meant to be therapy or a healing exercise. They were simply meant to provide a skill. It was up to the women to engage and do the work. We gave them the tools, but they did the work.”
The women who participated in this project have grown in so many ways and they are eager to help others do the same, volunteering to run creative workshops at our supportive housing sites. Providence House is proud to continue this tremendous partnership with Sara and Anna. We are retooling and relaunching our photography workshop in the fall so even more women can experience the power of photography.
To support this work, we are seeking donations to help fund the purchase of cameras that participants can keep at the end of the workshop. If you would like to be a part of this amazing journey, please donate today!
MEET OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS
After spending 18 years as a public defender, SARA BENNETT turned her attention to photographing women with life sentences, both inside and outside prison. Her work has been widely exhibited in solo shows, including at the Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR and Photoville in Brooklyn, NY, and in group shows, including MoMA PS1’s Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Her work has been featured in such publications as The New York Times, The New Yorker Photo Booth, and Variety & Rolling Stone’s “American (In)Justice.”
Originally from France, ANNA GREVENITIS is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. In her daily introspection, she searches for meaning with her camera. Drawing on the experiences of the domestic to inform her daily practice, she uses her home as a stage and her body and the body of others in her familial sphere as characters in order to deliver, in her photographs, the essence of what she wants to express about family and the self. Her photographs have been exhibited and published nationally and internationally.
