As We Are – Disability: Portraits of a Community

Greetings!

My exhibition As We Are – Disability: Portraits of a Community is a series of portraits of the disability community of the City University of New York – students, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators. The show at the Baruch College library – 25th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues – has been extended. Admission is free, the library is open day and night.

The eighteen people whose portraits I made are the story. People with disabilities in our society are often invisible, they’re seen as weird, or mostly we don’t know how to deal with them. Every person I photographed surprised me by their strength and energy. They’re engaged, they volunteer, they live life to its fullest. It was my intention to reveal their pride and strength, not to highlight their disabilities.

Darline Bertil

Darline Bertil was trapped for two days after the earthquake in Haiti. She lost both hands. “Therapy helped me learn to do everyday activities without thinking about the prosthetics. Whenever I accomplish a task with no help, it makes me really proud. Everything that happened made me more compassionate.” Darline graduated from Queensborough Community College and is a student at Hunter College.

Chris Rosa

Dr. Chris Rosa and his brother have been to over 100 Bruce Springstein concerts. They coached youth basketball for ten years; both have degenerative muscular dystrophy. “If you have two guys in wheelchairs, who get the team playing better and having fun, then suddenly the expectation is that everyone in wheelchairs can do stuff.” Chris is University Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at The City University of New York.

Gladys Esquijarosa

Gladys Esquijarosa, from the Bronx wants to be the next Bob Costas, and is not letting her muscular dystrophy get in the way. “Most people, including my family, have seen my challenge and not me. It is a part of my life. I would say that I am a person who happens to have a physical challenge. I consider the use of any other term to be demeaning and offensive.” Gladys graduated from Baruch College.

Marybeth Melendez

Marybeth Melendez is blind. “With barely forty dollars in my checking account, I enrolled as a freshman at the College of Staten Island. There were so many late hours researching papers, sleepless nights, all the while raising my three kids, working three part time jobs, running home to make dinner and help with homework.” In 2014 Marybeth ran for New York State Assembly in Staten Island and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. She is currently working as a clinical case manger in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.

Dr. David Sitt

Dr. David Sitt is a professor of psychology at Baruch College. “I have the gift of ADHD. I am glad that I adopted this perspective. In college I had the capacity to run seventy-four independent tracks of thought in my brain all at once. At the same time I struggled to meet my basic academic responsibilities. And the tool that has been the most effective in dealing with my ADHD is mindfulness based meditation.”

The photographs are 24×36” mounted under plexiglas. I must say they look amazing. Beneath each picture will be the subject’s statement. Visitors will also be able to listen to each person read his or her statement by clicking a QR code or by dialing a toll free number.

I am a documentary filmmaker, a founder of Florentine Films with an Emmy, a Peabody, a James Beard Award, and two Academy award nominations among my credits. My photography has appeared in Saveur, Town Country, Newsweek and other magazines. This will be my first solo photography exhibition in New York. Photographing and organizing As I Am was a wonderful, surprising, eye-opening experience for me. I look forward to seeing you at the show!

I hope I have piqued your interest to write about As We Are. Feel free to contact me at Roger.Sherman@FlorentineFilms.com and at 212-980-5966

Thanks for taking a look.