"Portraits of Home" opened Tuesday at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center. This traveling documentary photography exhibit features an eye-opening series of pictures documenting the difficulty a great many Minnesota families find housing themselves.
Contributing photographers - several of whom have received regional and national awards - include Ben Garvin of the St. Paul Pioneer Press; Carlos Gonzalez, Stormi Greener and Brian Peterson of the Star Tribune. Twin Cities freelancer and City/County Coordinator on Homelessness for Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Cathy ten Broeke and Grand Forks Herald photographer Eric Hylden also contributed work.
The images reveal the deeply challenging circumstances faced by communities across Greater Minnesota where many of our neighbors struggle daily to maintain family stability, safety and dignity under extraordinarily difficult living conditions.
The definition of "home" isn't universal - a hundred people may imagine a hundred different scenes when asked to picture "home". But most people could agree on a few essentials that when lost render one "homeless", even when a temporary roof to sleep under is regularly found. Provisional, unpredictable, or perilous shelter denies its occupants the comfort, the security, the safety of a home. This unsettled quality inhabits the images in this exhibition and distinguishes between "shelter" and "home."
The exhibit, which is from the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, runs from Sept. 5-Oct. 14. (Opening reception is Sept. 16, 1-3 pm.)
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Free and open to the public, the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center's Gallery is open Tuesday-Friday 10-5 and Saturday 10-3.
For more information call 218 385-3339.
