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"Make Believe: Walking the Line Between Documentary and Fiction"

Photograph by Alex Harris
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
7:00 pm
Alex Harris

Artist's talk at 7 p.m.; a dessert reception at 8 p.m. is a celebration of Harris's and Margaret Sartor's long connection to the Center for Documentary Studies and their years of teaching at Duke.

Drawing on images and experiences from five decades behind the camera, photographer Alex Harris will show and discuss his most recent project. In 2017, with a commission from the High Museum in Atlanta, Harris set out to immerse himself in the world of southern fiction filmmakers. Since that time he has photographed on a wide-variety of more than forty-two different films including historical, contemporary, horror, experimental, long and short form, low budget and multi-million dollar productions. This talk will preview Harris's exhibition and three-screen multi-media production that will open at the High Museum in November of 2019 and run through May of 2020.

Says Harris, "My intention and approach has been different from that of a movie set photographer hired by a film producer to capture stills for publicity. I have been free to respond in my own way to whatever unfolds in front of the camera, behind the scenes, or in communities that surround the production. I approached these dramas much in the way I might take on a more traditional documentary project, following my instincts and later editing my photographs, not to tell a particular story, but to discover the story my photographs have to tell."

Contact: Xaris Martinez