If eyes are the window to the soul, what can one say about the face? In his photographic exhibition, "The Face of Poverty," Peter Siegel addresses this question, imploring the viewer to recognize and empathize with the homeless faces represented.
Siegel's photographs, presented as part of kNOw Poverty week, depict homeless persons in New York City.
The kNOw Poverty Week of Education and Action is an initiative to address issues of poverty at the local, national and international levels, in hopes of increasing the Bowdoin community's understanding of poverty and ways to enact change. Though most kNOw poverty events took place during the second week of April, the exhibit will be on display until May 8.
According to Thomas Cornell, Professor of Visual Art, the exhibit represents "an attempt to get beyond the Bowdoin bubble."
"Enlightened sentiment is one important part of what education should be about," said Cornell.
In a community where few call a cardboard box beneath the Brooklyn Bridge home, Cornell recognizes the need to develop an "appropriate concept toward an ethos of equality."
The development of this "new modern, fair, balanced sense of equality" employs art as a helpful medium.
"A lot of times photographs can help us see," said Cornell. "Art can help us see and have sympathy?mature sympathy."
Cornell is not alone in his desire to stimulate a dialogue around the definition of equality and the common good.
Both the Community Service Resource Center and the Center for Poverty Studies have dedicated themselves to investigating how people see and understand poverty.
Bowdoin does not currently offer a Poverty Studies major or minor, but the College "has been responsive to these issues and deserves credit," said Cornell.
"The Face of Poverty" exhibit is on display until May 8 in the Chandler Room of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library.