Chris Banyas
Life Editor
Digital photography has largely become the most popular method of working within the art form, based chiefly in technological advancements in the modern world and situations in which photographs need to be captured and processed.
However, the older, more complicated and time involved process of developing photographs manually is still utilized by some and there are still several bastions where this form flourishes.
Many of these are focused on utilizing the older methods to make artistic statements, or perhaps merely in an expression of fealty to what some consider “the king” of the medium and what is possible within it.
Occasionally the reasons for a photographer utilizing physical film rather than digital transcend a mere artistic statement, brand loyalty, or any other such motivation.
Sometimes an artist sets out to not only tell a story through photographs and the film within which they are captured but tries to understand, through taking a different approach or perspective, something about the world in which they find themselves.
Robert Gerhardt is one such photographer and his ongoing work entitled “Muslim/American, American/Muslim” is currently on display at the John B. Davis Gallery in the Fine Arts Building of Idaho State University.
The display, which features black and white photographs taken by Gerhardt of Muslim Americans from different communities over the course of several years, in a variety of places including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Tennessee, Kansas, Virginia, Illinois and New York will run through Jan. 30.
“I hope [viewers] get a couple of things out of it. One is a look into a community that some people probably know nothing about,” said Gerhardt. “No matter what you’ve heard or what you’ve read one way or the other, I don’t know if my photographs are going to change anybody’s mind over good, bad, this kind of thing.”
Gerhardt added, “At least go with an open mind and think about these ideas you have in your head versus what the photographs are and if it makes you think about it, that’s what I’m trying to do.”
The project initially grew out of Gerhardt’s interest in the tumultuous events that occurred in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, in regard to the treatment of Muslim-Americans and specifically a movement to build a mosque on Staten Island that occurred many years later.
“I realized I’m hearing all this stuff and people are saying all these horrendous things but nobody’s actually bothering to go talk to them,” said Gerhardt. “So I contacted the Muslim American Society who had tried to build that mosque on Staten Island, they gave me some connections to a mosque in Brooklyn who welcomed me to come for a year and sort of photograph their community. It’s sort of a way of seeing what’s really going on versus, whether the right or the left, whatever they’re saying is going on. This was sort of my attempt to see what was going on.”
Another wrinkle in the story of how the project came about involved what was termed the ground zero mosque.
“It’s about two blocks, three blocks north of ground zero. It’s an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory that had been damaged in 9/11, and they bought it to build a mosque there and there was this huge uproar,” said Gerhardt. “I spent six months in and out of there photographing. I was the first and as far as I know the only photographer to really photograph there, the reason being that I’m the only one who ever asked. All these people who were out protesting and yelling about it, nobody’d ever been inside of it. You can’t make a comment on whether you like something or hate something if you don’t’ know what it is.”
The controversy surrounding a Pocatello mosque is largely what drew Gerhardt’s attention to the area and eventually what brought him to inquire as to the possibility of displaying the collection at ISU.
Gerhardt takes an approach to photographing his subjects that is quite different from the majority working within photojournalism. He spends a significant amount of time getting to know his subjects and slowly makes his presence less alarming and strange to them.
This allows him to capture photographs which are much more natural and organic than those snapped over the course of mere minutes by someone with little to no prior knowledge of the subjects.
As exemplified by his first few trips to the mosque in Brooklyn, Gerhardt is very concerned with learning about his subjects.
“The first couple of times I was there I honestly didn’t take even a picture. I had my cameras with me but I left them in my bag because I figured it’s more important for people to get used to the idea of me being there than me showing up and immediately sticking a camera in their face,” said Gerhardt. “I spent a lot of time talking to people, asking people questions, ‘why do you do this? Why do you do that? What’s exactly going on?’ I went to all kinds of youth group meetings, I went to meetings with the adults, I would talk to the Imam about general life things.”
Gerhardt also gives those who find themselves lined up within the viewfinder of his camera something additional for their cooperation and tolerance of his presence.
“Whenever I take pictures I always give the community copies of them, like little four-by-six prints so they can sort of see what it is that I’m actually doing and as sort of like a thank you for letting me come,” said Gerhardt.
Previous projects of Gerhardt’s include photographing other communities around Brooklyn within bars, along Myrtle Avenue, within subway trains and even the Karen people of Burma.
Another of Gerhardt’s projects is entitled “Drive Safely” and is comprised of photographs he has captured on his travels throughout America.
“America in general has always interested me and that’s definitely a reaction to what is, I mean we’ve got this great picture in the mind of what the greatest generation, World War II, what those guys thought of as the American Dream and what the reality of it is now,” said Gerhardt. “What we were taught when I was a kid is very different than now.”
Gerhardt’s work may be viewed any time at robertgerhardt.com, or in the John B. Davis Gallery through Jan. 30, 2015.
