Beyond the Headlines: Faces and Places – Haiti  is a selection of photographs from a freelance, art-documentary project I have been working on over the past three years in Haiti. The wider project, titled: Lives in (R)evolution, combines written essays and photography to bring stories from Haiti that take the reader and the viewer beyond the sensation-driven stories presented through the news media, or the pity-inducing imagery proliferated by the nonprofit industry; two areas of knowledge production that dominate the information flow we receive about this Caribbean country.

Lives in (R)evolution brings stories of people who neither seek to be included in the reporting of foreign journalists, nor have they become migrants, rather, they have stayed in Haiti, and for that reason are not frequently featured in the stories that reach the global North. People who have their own words and their own voice, and who invite the wider world to connect with them through shared themes and experiences such as family, motherhood, faith, talent, art and resilience. This exhibit aims to refocus the lens through which Haitians have typically been presented in the United States. The photographs acknowledge the material difficulties or the challenges inherent in the daily routines of most people living in Haiti, but they encourage the viewer to look at the moments of life recorded on the pictures through a humanizing, artistic frame, and to recognize aspects of themselves in the people presented on them.

About the Artist

Ildi Tillmann is an emerging author and photographer working at the crossroads of art and documentary. She was born and raised in Hungary, and she has been living on Long Island, in the United States, over the past twenty years. Ms Tillmann’s artistic approach is informed by the various cultures she has seen and experienced, the languages she speaks, and the people she has met through her life, all of which have confirmed her faith in our shared human fate. Her experiences have encouraged her to see beyond national, ethnic, religious or racial differences and to highlight the cyclical nature of stories inherent to the human condition.

For further information you can visit the artist’s website: www.ildikotillmann.com or her portfolio site, which also includes prints for sale: https://ilditillmannphotography.portfoliobox.net/store.

The Comsewogue Public Library Gallery is located on the main floor outside of the Community Room. In the 690 square foot gallery there is approximately 75 feet of hanging wall space. There is also one lockable display case available measuring 44″ wide x 20″ deep x 8 1/2″ high.