Thursday, June 14, 2012

PRESS RELEASE: Photographs of The Backstretch at Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury

A View From The Backstretch will be at Vermont Folklife Center's Vision and Voice Documentary Gallery from June 8 - September 8th. Open Tuesday - Saturday 10 am - 5pm.

A View from the Backstretch is a collaboration between Obie- and Bessie-award-winning Vermont photographer Dona Ann McAdams and a group of Saratoga Race Course’s backstretch workers, including exercise riders, hot walkers, maintenance personnel, a trainer, and a groom. This exhibit brings together black and white photographs taken by Dona Ann McAdams as well as color photographs created by her backstretch photography students from their own unique perspectives. 

Over the past year, the Vermont Folklife Center has been working with McAdams to deepen the connection between the public and these track workers by further documenting their life stories using the oral interview. In this exhibit, through photography and interview, visitors will experience an intimate look at an occupation unseen by most.

Dona Ann McAdams is an internationally published and exhibited photographer. Her work has been exhibited at, among other places, the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The International Center for Photography. She’s the recipient of the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize given by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and her book of photography Caught in the Act  was published by Aperture.