Lisa and her key, Tindall and his hat, Patricia Anne and her real dog, Fred, and his toy dog. Each photograph in Susan Mullally’s new series, “What I Keep: The New Face of Homelessness and Poverty” portrays a person with their own unique keepsake.Members of the Guilford College community gathered in the Hege Library Art Gallery for the opening of Mullally’s exhibit on Oct. 8. The exhibit is presented in association with Greensboro’s community reading event, “One City, One Book,” and Guilford’s “Green and Beyond” program.

“The exhibition is meant to get the Greensboro community talking about themes of homelessness, mental illness, race, poverty, ownership and redemption,” said Kelsey McMillan ’08, curator pro tem of the art gallery.

The series consists of 23 large photographs. The captions include a quote from each of the subjects. Every photograph carries a different tone.

Marvin “Cowboy” holds his hat saying, “Without my hat I’m just like everybody else.”

James Royce Smith keeps a picture of himself with his deceased his wife saying, “I’ll always keep this. I’ll keep it until something happens.”

“Not all of my subjects are homeless,” Mullally said at the opening reception on Oct. 8. “But each of them have had some degree of disruption in their lives. I was interested to see what each of them have held on to throughout the years and what these things mean to them and their lives.”

Mullally is a former Guilford professor and currently a professor of photography at Baylor University in Waco, T.X. She and her subjects for this series are all members of “Church Under the Bridge,” an interdenominational, all-inclusive church that meets under an I-35 overpass every Sunday.

The church was founded in 1992 when a Christian couple started conducting Bible studies with four homeless men that slept under the bridge. The church now has ministries, music, and several hundred patrons.

“What I Keep” was inspired when Mullally was asked to create a directory for “Church Under the Bridge” three years ago. What started out as a directory evolved into something much larger.
“The scale of the photos and the subjects’ gazes prompt an unspoken dialogue between the viewer and the subject,” said McMillan.

“The captions next to the photographs further this dialogue because they tell the viewer about the person, what the object is, and most significantly, why it is the one thing they hold on to.”

Mullally has completed other projects in the past using narrative to complement her photographs. One was a book co-authored by Emily Wilson called “Hope and Dignity: Older Black Women of the South.”

Mullally’s latest series could not have come at a more appropriate time. While she was piecing this project together, the national economy was falling apart.

“There are many similarities between Mullally’s work and the work of Eudora Welty,” said Maia Dery, visiting instructor of art. “Welty was an agent for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Unlike other photographers, she didn’t just focus on ‘poor people’; rather, she was interested in the community that centered around what it means to be marginalized.”

A handful of community activists met for an open discussion on Oct. 12 in the Hege Library Art Gallery. The purpose of the discussion was to address and challenge common notions about homelessness.

“The recession has revealed that it is fear that separates the poor and the well-off, not merely possessions,” said Liz Seymour, director of the Interactive Resource Center, a local organization that aids the homeless. “The fear of losing a $300 apartment is the same as the fear of losing a $200,000 home. People are afraid of being associated with ‘the other side.'”

“What hit home for me personally was the portrait of a homeless man in the exhibit who has four different college degrees from various universities,” said McMillan. “I hope the Guilford community learns that homelessness and poverty is a reality for thousands of people across the U.S., and more specifically, in our own community of Greensboro.

Lisa and her key, Tindall and his hat, Patricia Anne and her real dog, Fred, and his toy dog. Each photograph in Susan Mullally’s new series, “What I Keep: The New Face of Homelessness and Poverty” portrays a person with their own unique keepsake.Members of the Guilford College community gathered in the Hege Library Art Gallery for the opening of Mullally’s exhibit on Oct. 8. The exhibit is presented in association with Greensboro’s community reading event, “One City, One Book,” and Guilford’s “Green and Beyond” program.

“The exhibition is meant to get the Greensboro community talking about themes of homelessness, mental illness, race, poverty, ownership and redemption,” said Kelsey McMillan ’08, curator pro tem of the art gallery.

The series consists of 23 large photographs. The captions include a quote from each of the subjects. Every photograph carries a different tone.

Marvin “Cowboy” holds his hat saying, “Without my hat I’m just like everybody else.”

James Royce Smith keeps a picture of himself with his deceased his wife saying, “I’ll always keep this. I’ll keep it until something happens.”

“Not all of my subjects are homeless,” Mullally said at the opening reception on Oct. 8. “But each of them have had some degree of disruption in their lives. I was interested to see what each of them have held on to throughout the years and what these things mean to them and their lives.”

Mullally is a former Guilford professor and currently a professor of photography at Baylor University in Waco, T.X. She and her subjects for this series are all members of “Church Under the Bridge,” an interdenominational, all-inclusive church that meets under an I-35 overpass every Sunday.

The church was founded in 1992 when a Christian couple started conducting Bible studies with four homeless men that slept under the bridge. The church now has ministries, music, and several hundred patrons.

“What I Keep” was inspired when Mullally was asked to create a directory for “Church Under the Bridge” three years ago. What started out as a directory evolved into something much larger.
“The scale of the photos and the subjects’ gazes prompt an unspoken dialogue between the viewer and the subject,” said McMillan.

“The captions next to the photographs further this dialogue because they tell the viewer about the person, what the object is, and most significantly, why it is the one thing they hold on to.”

Mullally has completed other projects in the past using narrative to complement her photographs. One was a book co-authored by Emily Wilson called “Hope and Dignity: Older Black Women of the South.”

Mullally’s latest series could not have come at a more appropriate time. While she was piecing this project together, the national economy was falling apart.

“There are many similarities between Mullally’s work and the work of Eudora Welty,” said Maia Dery, visiting instructor of art. “Welty was an agent for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Unlike other photographers, she didn’t just focus on ‘poor people’; rather, she was interested in the community that centered around what it means to be marginalized.”

A handful of community activists met for an open discussion on Oct. 12 in the Hege Library Art Gallery. The purpose of the discussion was to address and challenge common notions about homelessness.

“The recession has revealed that it is fear that separates the poor and the well-off, not merely possessions,” said Liz Seymour, director of the Interactive Resource Center, a local organization that aids the homeless. “The fear of losing a $300 apartment is the same as the fear of losing a $200,000 home. People are afraid of being associated with ‘the other side.'”

“What hit home for me personally was the portrait of a homeless man in the exhibit who has four different college degrees from various universities,” said McMillan. “I hope the Guilford community learns that homelessness and poverty is a reality for thousands of people across the U.S., and more specifically, in our own community of Greensboro.