Muslim Self Portraits Defy Stereotypes

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Cecile S. Holmes, Religion News Service

'Nushmia' is one of the self portraits in the 'Esse Quam Videri'
exhibition on display in Rubenstein Hall. Courtesy of "Duke Today"

NORTH CAROLINA - Artist Todd Drake has aimed his camera lens at truck drivers, Alzheimer’s patients and employees of an exotic nightclub. But he’s trying to build interfaith bridges by asking Muslims to turn the lens on themselves. Drake’s traveling exhibit, “Esse Quam Videri: Muslim Self Portraits,” started after he decided he needed to learn more about his Muslim neighbors. “I just started cold-calling mosques,” Drake said during an exhibition of his work at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. “I had an intuitive feeling that they would be interested in this project. I asked them to represent themselves, not to let me define them.” In January, the exhibit opens at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures at Indiana University in Bloomington. St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, N.Y., will host the exhibit beginning in April 2012, and the University of Chicago also plans to show it next year. [link]