MIDLOTHIAN, Va. (ABP) — A photo exhibit and competition sponsored by a church near Richmond, Va., will raise money for victims of last January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti and honor an award-winning photojournalist whose work illustrated decades of Baptist mission endeavors.
The exhibit, to be held Oct. 16-17 at Winfree Memorial Baptist Church in Midlothian, Va., will feature the art of beginning and experienced photographers whose work portrays the faces of people from around the world and of all nationalities, races and ethnic groups. Viewers will vote for their favorite photograph by enclosing money in an envelope for that picture. First and second place awards will be given to the photographs with the most money, and all funds will go toward Haiti relief.
Don Rutledge (NAMB photo by Ken Touchton)
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Winfree Memorial is the home church of Don Rutledge, a renowned photographer whose work was published in magazines and books around the globe, winning more than 400 awards. Rutledge worked for the Black Star photo agency in New York for more than 30 years, as well as the Southern Baptist Convention’s Foreign (now International) Mission Board and Home (now North American) Mission Board.
“It seems a fitting subject for the exhibit to honor a man who began his career as a photographer for the book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin in 1959,” said Susan Marshall, one of the organizers of the competition.
Black Like Me chronicled the experiences of Griffin, who was white, as he traveled the Deep South disguised as a black man. Rutledge joined Griffin, whose skin was darkened by medication and makeup, on the journey.
Stanley Leary, a Baptist free-lance photographer who worked closely with Rutledge, says his photographs “concentrate on the emotions of people.”
“No matter where you are located in the world, people’s emotions stand above language and cultures,” said Leary. “These small moments of expression communicate across our language barriers…. [Rutledge’s] style of photography was not bound by words or cultures.”
Funds raised at the competition will replace severely-damaged houses in Haiti like this one.
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Haiti and its people loom large in Rutledge’s life, since his son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Peggy Rutledge, have worked there for more than 20 years as missionaries with the International Mission Board. Mark coordinates the IMB’s disaster response and relief team in the island nation.
All funds raised at the photo competition will be channeled through the Rutledges’ ministry in Haiti. The income will be used to:
• Build one-room homes to replace those destroyed in the quake. These structures can be built for about $2,000-$3,000 each.
• Provide support for widows whose husband were killed in the disaster.
• Equip a destroyed school, which is being reconstructed, with benches, chalkboards and other supplies.
“The needs in Haiti continue to be great,” said Winfree’s Marshall. “Peggy Rutledge recently commented on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina here in the U.S. She said that five years later, with all the resources that we have here, the areas affected still have not fully recovered. How can we expect Haiti with such limited resources to have done so in these few months?”
Funds raised by the photo show will help construct new homes like this one.
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In the days following the quake, as Mark Rutledge surveyed the devastation, destitute Haitians scrawled their needs on small scraps of paper and handed them to him. Eventually an envelope was required to hold the burgeoning collection. He called it the “envelope of hope.”
That image will be reflected in the photo competition as donations are placed in “envelopes of hope” by those voting for their favorite photograph. One dollar will represent one vote.
The first-place winner will receive a $500 gift certificate to Richmond Camera, provided by Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital. The second-place winner will receive a $250 gift certificate to Best Buy, provided by Union First Market Bank. None of the donations from participants at the competition will go toward the prizes; all of it will be used to assist Haitian earthquake victims.
In addition, some photos at the exhibit will be available for sale, with 50 percent of the proceeds going toward Haiti relief and 50 percent to the photographer.
The photo exhibit will be open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 16, and from 12 noon-4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 17. The event runs concurrently with the Midlothian Village Days festival, held annually in the suburban Richmond community. A booth at the festival will highlight the exhibit and competition.
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Robert Dilday is managing editor of the Virginia Baptist Religious Herald.