La Casita Cultural Center, 109 Otisco St., Syracuse, will host a closing reception and silent auction for “The Photographer as Child: Memories of Guatemala,” an exhibition of the work of award-winning photographer Efrén López, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 10. The celebration will also recognize the artwork of students from the Westside Academy at Blodgett. The event is free and open to the public.
The silent auction will feature López’s artwork that is included in the exhibition. Proceeds will benefit La Casita’s Young Photographers’ Fund. The fund will support programs at La Casita that provide opportunities for youth to express themselves through photography.
“The Photographer as Child” has been on exhibit at La Casita since January and features images Lopez captured on a return trip to Guatemala in 2009. “My life began in a bamboo hut at the side of a road in a tiny town named Petaca, Guatemala, in 1966,” López writes. “It’s a town so small that it is next to impossible to find on most maps of Guatemala, much less Central America.”
A student in the Military Photojournalism Program in Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, López worked with students in the Ford Driving Dreams Program at Blodgett School to teach them to document their lives in images and words. The students’ work has been display in the La Casita gallery since March 23. Ford Driving Dreams is a partnership among La Casita, the League of United Latin American Citizens, La Liga, University College and the Westside Academy at Blodgett and is funded by the Ford Motor Fund through a grant to LULAC.
Born in Guatemala, López is an aerial photographer for the U.S. Air Force and the first reservist to be selected to attend Newhouse’s Military Photojournalism Program. He now lives in Arizona. His work has been featured in various publications, including the book “Arizona 24/7,” and has been awarded many distinctions, including first place in the Professional Photography category at the 2008 Arizona State Fair, an honorable mention in the pictorial category in the 2009 Military Photographer of the Year competition and first place in the 2011 Multimedia Team 19th Annual Department of Defense Worldwide Military Photography Workshop.
The Wonder Years, the 1980s television show evoking nostalgia in many Americans for decades, is finally back on television screens, but this time with greater impact. The 2021 reboot of the class show features a Black family, the Williams, set…
Kenneth Marfilius, visiting teaching professor in the Falk College School of Social Work, was quoted by The 19th, “I just see nothing but voids’: As combat ends, women veterans fight trauma and grief.” Marfilius discussed mental health issues among veterans and…
Carol Liebler, communications professor in the Newhouse School, was interviewed by for the BYU Radio program “Top of Mind with Julie Rose” for an episode entitled “White Women Aren’t the Only Ones Going Missing” and was a guest on Reality…
Sharif Bey, associate professor in the School of Visual and Performing Arts, was featured in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s article “In ‘Excavations,’ Sharif Bey unearths his roots and shows what a Beltzhoover ‘art kid’ can do” and by WESA-FM (Pittsburgh). Bey…
Gregory Germain, professor of law and director of the bankruptcy clinic, was interviewed by CBS News for the story “Bankrupt companies gave $165 million in bonuses to top execs before going belly up last year.” Germain, an expert on bankruptcy,…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
