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On exhibit in 
Walsh Library Gallery

Faces From An American Dream
Photographs by Martin J. Desht

With sculpture by Ccopacatty


Introduction

"Faces from an American Dream: A Photographic Essay by Martin J. Desht," is an exhibition detailing how the transition from an industrial economy to a service and information economy has affected American life in the late 20th Century. It will be shown at Seton Hall University's Walsh Library Gallery is on exhibit through March 9, 2001. 

The public is invited to meet the artists at a reception in the Gallery on Friday, February 9 from 5 to 8 p.m., on the first floor of Walsh Library on Seton Hall's main campus, 400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ. Both artists will speak at a program beginning at 7 p.m. Desht will speak on "Growing Up in an Industrial Age" and Ccopacatty will speak on the themes and challenges of his sculptural work.

"Faces from an American Dream" is a traveling photographic exhibit that examines American de-industrialization, the term used to describe an economy losing its industrial base to a more service-oriented nature. The exhibit reflects the changes de-industrialization has brought for both skilled and unskilled American workers, and its effects on poverty, immigration and new urban enterprises.

Desht, a former steelworker laid off by Pennsylvania's Bethlehem Steel in the late 1970s, dealt with his unemployment through photography. After purchasing an old camera from another unemployed steelworker, Desht began his career in photography and photojournalism. In 1989, Desht collaborated with Lafayette College historian Richard Sharpless to document de-industrialization throughout the state of Pennsylvania. The resulting photographs make up "Faces from an American Dream."

Traveling since 1991, the 35-panel exhibit has been displayed at the United States Senate, the United States Department of Labor, and many colleges and universities. 

The work of Peruvian artist Ccopacatty complements the photographic exhibit. A series of models of the artist's monumental sculptures will be on display, including Farmers, installed in Norfolk, Virginia, Unity, Steel Workers, Human Energy and Evolution. Ccopacatty, a native of the Andes in Peru, creates work which stresses family, struggle and triumph. 

The exhibit is sponsored in part by Seton Hall University's Department of Community Development, Office of Alumni Relations, the Human Relations Committee, the Multicultural Program and the Friends of the Walsh Library Gallery.

The photographic essay is supported in part by the Amalgamated Bank of New York, MCS Industries and The Puffin Foundation, Ltd.

Desht, in addition to his social documentaries, is the unofficial photographer of the biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Festival in Waterloo Village in New Jersey, and is also known for his landscapes of Cape Cod, cityscapes of New York and still lifes.

Exhibit hours are Monday - Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and by appointment. For more information, call the Walsh Library Gallery at (973) 275-2033.

                                 
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