News Release

Youth Photography Exhibit and Jacob Riis Traveling Exhibit at the Calumet Visitor Center

Date: August 29, 2019
Contact: Wyndeth Davis, 906-483-3020

The National Park Service would like to invite the community to a special exhibit opening at the Calumet Visitor Center on Friday, September 6, 2019 from 6:00-8:00 pm EST. Two new exhibits are being featured on the third floor between now and October 20, 2019.
 
The My Neighborhood My Heritage exhibit features the photographs of area youth who learned about, and then documented, historic landscapes and buildings this past summer. More than 30 local youth participated in the My Neighborhood My Heritage program, where they learned about photography, explored the history of local communities, and documented their perspectives using disposable cameras. They were given the freedom to take 27 pictures of scenes, buildings, or details that captured their attention and reflected their point of view. Park Ranger Nick Clark led the participants on historical walking tours, gave them tips on taking photographs, and helped them capture the essence of a place through photography.
 
The second exhibit on display is Jacob A. Riis: How the Other Half Lives, a traveling exhibition from the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Jacob Riis was a pioneering newspaper reporter and social reformer in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. His then-novel idea of using photographs of the city’s slums to illustrate the plight of impoverished residents established Riis as a forerunner of modern photojournalism. The exhibit features photography by Riis and his contemporaries, as well as his handwritten journals and personal correspondence.
 
“Why Jacob Riis? We are hearing this a lot,” says Wyndeth Davis, park superintendent. “In 1906 Riis came to Calumet and Hancock in person to share his photographs and his message with the people. Now, he has returned. Come and see for yourself what Riis has to say to us today.”  
 
“Both of these exhibits highlight the power of images to create connections between people, places and ideas. We do not have to look far into the past to see how photographs have changed our world view, and our world,” said Davis. “Asking young people to put down their digital cameras and use film, as Jacob Riis did, introduced them to a dilemma we ‘older folk’ faced with film cameras: there are limited frames on this roll of film, so how can I best use them? The results are intriguing!”
 
Both exhibits will be open to the public for extended hours on Friday, September 6 as part of Calumet’s First Friday events and activities. The exhibits are on display on the third floor at the National Park Service’s Calumet Visitor Center, located at 98 Fifth Street in Calumet, Michigan. Participating youth in the My Neighborhood My Heritage program can pick up their photo packets from the park beginning at 6 pm.
 
For more information about Keweenaw National Historical Park and other park events and programs, contact park headquarters at 906-337-3168, or check the park webpage atwww.nps.gov/kewe.