The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University partners biannually with the Honickman Foundation to award the First Book Prize in Photography. Last year, that prestigious honor went to photographer Gerard H. Gaskin. In recognition of this achievement, CDS will display a series of his work, which incorporates both black-and-white and color photography, titled “Legendary: Inside the Ballroom Scene." The exhibition will go up this November and is expected to run until February 2014.
The CDS show involves a collection of images that Gaskin has compiled throughout his twenty years of experience documenting counterculture. He created his collection by attending unique events where members of the LGBTQ community gathered to engage in activities that allowed them to express themselves and their culture. Gaskin celebrates these moments by preserving them through his camera, and his documentation is a symbol of the continual progress across the United States. Gaskin's usage of radiant color in contrast to his black-and-white photography takes us inside various cultures and even introduces his viewers to civil movements, including the fight for gay rights.
Gaskin is a well-traveled photographer and has documented minorities from all around the U.S. Gaskin's works are world renowned, and he has been featured in newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, Newsday and Teen People.
Additionally, Gaskin’s photographs have been featured in exhibitions across the country, making their way into many famous museums such as the Brooklyn Museum and The Queens Museum of Art. Notably, his work has also appeared at the Black Magic Woman Festival in Amsterdam, Holland.
In 2002, Gaskin won another impressive award, receiving the Artists’ Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Gaskin’s photography was a part of the “Gordon Park’s 90,” an event which brought together several talented African-American photographers in celebration of the famous photographer for which the event is named.
In promotion of the upcoming exhibition, Deborah Willis, a contemporary African-American artist, curator, historian and author exudes high praise for Gaskin, who she selected for the 2012 First Book Award in Photography.
Gaskin’s display will open in CDS on Nov. 1. For more information, visit http://documentarystudies.duke.edu/exhibits/upcoming-exhibits.
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