The Fourth Grade Project
Traveling Exhibition from Exhibits USA & The NEA
On Display January 28 to May 1, 2021
A Program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance
and The National Endowment for the Arts
On Display January 28 to May 1, 2021
A Program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance
and The National Endowment for the Arts
Judy Gelles, Be Murdered, South Africa, Public School, 2015; digital print on Diabond; 25 x 20 inches, Courtesy of Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia
I SPEAK ZULU AND ENGLISH. MY FATHER IS A POLICEMAN AND CARRIES A GUN. OUR HOUSE HAS A WALL AROUND IT WITH ELECTRICAL WIRE. MY WISH IS THAT EVERYBODY STOP FIGHTING EACH OTHER; AT HOME, AT SCHOOL, AND IN THE WORLD. I AM SCARED THAT ONE DAY I WILL BE MURDERED.”
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Judy Gelles, The World, Israel, Public School, 2017; digital print on Diabond; 25 x 20 inches, Courtesy of Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia.
“I LIVE ON A MOSHAV WITH MY PARENTS, SISTER, AND BROTHER. I PLAY THE FLUTE AND SING. I PRACTICE EVERY DAY. SOME DAY I WOULD LIKE TO PLAY IN AN ORCHESTRA. MY WISH IS FOR FEWER FIGHTS BETWEEN JEWS AND ARABS, I WORRY ABOUT THE POLICE. I AM AFRAID OF GUNS. I WISH THERE WERE NO GUNS INTHE WORLD.” |
In the past decade, acclaimed artist Judy Gelles interviewed and photographed more than 300 fourth-grade students from a wide range of economic and cultural backgrounds in China, England, India, Israel, Italy, Nicaragua, St. Lucia, South Africa, Dubai, South Korea, and multiple areas of the United States. She asked all of the students the same three questions: Who do you live with? What do you wish for? What do you worry about? Their varied stories touch on the human condition and urgent social issues.
The students’ stories capture the gamut of societal issues that we face today: violence, immigration, the demise of the nuclear family, global hunger, and the impact of the media and popular culture. The combination of frontal and reverse portraits allowed for the development of both personal and universal stories, and derived from the subject care-taker’s reactions to photography in each country. In the US, photographing from the front can be problematic because of privacy issues. In China, it is considered disrespectful to photograph from the back. In India, parents and teachers made no objections to either frontal or back portraits. In all of the portraits across the spectrum of countries, the children are presented as individuals; however, their stories speak to greater pervasive truths and problems within our society. Told in their own words, these children’s stories touch on some of our most pressing social issues and common human experiences.
Judy Gelles (1944–2020) received her MFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and her Masters in Counseling from the University of Miami. She had a long-time focus on themes of family and children, with work in major collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She had residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Visual Studies Workshop, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Awards include a grant from the Lomax Family Foundation, an Individual Artist Grant from the Rhode Island state Council on the Arts, an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Artist as Catalyst Grant, a grant from WYBE Public Television, a Philadelphia Stories New Program Grant, and a Fleisher Challenge Artist Exhibition. In 2013, Critical Mass listed her as one of the top 50 photographers in the US. In 2015, she presented The Fourth Grade Project as a TEDx talk. Her work has been featured in Ms. Magazine; Vision Magazine, Beijing, China; Camerawork; New Art Examiner; Artweek, and Photography Now. Gelles passed away in March 2020.
The students’ stories capture the gamut of societal issues that we face today: violence, immigration, the demise of the nuclear family, global hunger, and the impact of the media and popular culture. The combination of frontal and reverse portraits allowed for the development of both personal and universal stories, and derived from the subject care-taker’s reactions to photography in each country. In the US, photographing from the front can be problematic because of privacy issues. In China, it is considered disrespectful to photograph from the back. In India, parents and teachers made no objections to either frontal or back portraits. In all of the portraits across the spectrum of countries, the children are presented as individuals; however, their stories speak to greater pervasive truths and problems within our society. Told in their own words, these children’s stories touch on some of our most pressing social issues and common human experiences.
Judy Gelles (1944–2020) received her MFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and her Masters in Counseling from the University of Miami. She had a long-time focus on themes of family and children, with work in major collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She had residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Visual Studies Workshop, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Awards include a grant from the Lomax Family Foundation, an Individual Artist Grant from the Rhode Island state Council on the Arts, an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Artist as Catalyst Grant, a grant from WYBE Public Television, a Philadelphia Stories New Program Grant, and a Fleisher Challenge Artist Exhibition. In 2013, Critical Mass listed her as one of the top 50 photographers in the US. In 2015, she presented The Fourth Grade Project as a TEDx talk. Her work has been featured in Ms. Magazine; Vision Magazine, Beijing, China; Camerawork; New Art Examiner; Artweek, and Photography Now. Gelles passed away in March 2020.
SPONSORS: Anonymous, Tom and Laura McDonald, Roger and Barbara Brookwell, and Lewis and Susan Wiley,
with major funding provided by the Newell B. Sargent Foundation
with major funding provided by the Newell B. Sargent Foundation
