Redefining We: A Peacemaking Photo Exhibit
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It was December 2015 and three tragic, coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris had just rocked the world. The US presidential campaign was heating up and anti-Muslim rhetoric was at an all-time high. Then-candidate Trump proposed the idea of a Muslim ban and it whipped an increasingly visible segment of American into a fervor. Anti-Muslim hate crimes began to increase rapidly—the US saw a 30% increase in December 2015 alone.
I was a graduate student at the time, working on a project to help me understand Muslim-American culture. Over the previous 4 months, I’d embedded myself into my local Muslim community and (to my shame) was blown away by their kindness, acceptance, and community-mindedness. When the mosque I’d spent time at was vandalized and my Muslim friends became nervous to attend their place of worship, I knew I wanted to do something.
But what?
I considered my resources—I’m a photographer and was well connected to other photographers, I’m part of several religious communities, I’m really good at talking people into doing things with me, and to top it off, I quite enjoy making other people uncomfortable. However, I was also broke and had very little free time.
Taking all those things into consideration, I starting brainstorming ideas for what I could do, where I was, with what I had.
And I dreamed up Redefining We: a nationwide, peacemaking photography project designed to bring Muslim women and Christian women into a shared space. I collaborated with [primarily] female photographers around the United States to create a collection of images that dismantle stereotypes, facilitate dialogue, and create a sense of mutuality between two groups of women that are often estranged.
Each photographer created a set of images with one photo of a Muslim woman and one photo of a Christian woman, engaged in similar activities (ie. studying, speaking, making art, mothering, playing sports, etc). The photos were matted side-by-side in a shared frame as a visual reminder that Muslim women and Christian women have much in common, despite our differences.
Discussion questions would be posted throughout the exhibit, carefully constructed to facilitate meaningful dialogue, build relationships, and create opportunities for mutual transformation.
I started reaching out to people asking if they were interested and it quickly grew larger than I anticipated. My original goal was to get 10 photographers and 10 sets of photos… I ended up with 23 sets of photos from 17 photographers. There were 50 photo subjects from 7 different US states (and 1 photo from Morocco!) So 5 months, hundreds of hours of work, and 2 generous grants later, I had my project. Or… more accurately, we had our project.
Below, you’ll find a selection from the exhibit.
I gave away as much ownership of it as I could to the women who were helping me create it. I wanted it to be ours… and it was. Each photographer and participant was given the freedom to fully embrace the process and bring their vision to life in a set of images.
For many the women who helped create the exhibit, the process of getting the images was also deeply, and unexpectedly transformative. Many of the photographers and subjects never met until the day of their shoot, and for about half of them, neither had ever spent one-on-one time with someone from the other religion. I arranged many of pairings myself with the help of facebook and friends scattered across the country, so after an electronic introduction, these women had to forge relationships on their own. They had to get to know each other, learn to be comfortable, and create a vision for the image.
Friendships were created. Misconceptions were dismantled. Peace was made.
And sure… less than 100 women participated in that way. But for those of us who did, it was our way of pushing back again the violence and hatred we saw flourishing in our country. We wanted to see the opposite of hate crimes. So that’s what we created. That’s what we did.
In my mind, this project became a beautiful example of how women can come together to make something from nothing. We made this 20-piece art exhibit together. From scratch. Armed with nothing but our belief in basic human goodness, our generosity, and a willingness to step out of our comfort zone to be with one another.
We had our first gallery-viewing and dialogue event in Redmond, Washington in September 2016… it was a success beyond my wildest dreams. I cried happy tears the entire night because the idea came to life so beautifully.
Seventy-five women attended (on a rainy Friday night, on a holiday weekend!) and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Wonderfully, the vision I had in my head was realized. Women came in, were put into small groups, and moved through the exhibit discussing the posted questions. They were nervous at first, being forced into groups with strangers and asked to discuss questions about gender and religion, but afterward many of the attendees told me that the small groups were the best part.
The feedback was incredible. The phrase “we are all women” was repeated over and over again in the comments, and to me, that means the exhibit worked—it actually did redefine people’s idea of “we” to include women who were very different from themselves.
Photos by Christine Otte
“We” are all women. (Cue all the happy tears.)
The exhibit went on to be displayed at other venues including universities, government buildings, conference halls, and art galleries. Several more dialogue events were held and each time people were changed. Because hate, misunderstanding, and fear cannot survive proximity.
This was what I could do. It was hard. I sacrificed a lot to make it happen (sleep, money, margin, time with my kids and husband, time with friends, etc.)
But oh, was it worth it. It feels like a piece of me, manifested in the form of frames and mats and photographs. It feels like part of why I’m here and what I was meant to do.
I’d be less me without it here, and the world would have less good in it… and that would be a shame on both counts.
The exhibit is available and would love to travel to your area. So if you are interested in hosting the exhibit and a dialogue event (anywhere in the world), please contact me for more information.
