Tampa Bay Veterans Break Barriers Using Cell Phone Cameras

TAMPA, FL — The University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum has opened its newest exhibit, "Breaking Barriers: Through Our Lens," as part of arts programming for military veterans.

"Breaking Barriers: Through Our Lens" brings together the art of 17 U.S. veterans and family members. The exhibition includes a selection of 47 photographs from two intensive artist-led photography workshops, including both a beginning and an advanced section.

Through the artist’s lens, viewers are offered an intimate and close look at the quotidian, personal places and spaces, memories and narratives by means of objects and landscapes.

The artwork represents a vast range of photographic experience, from learning to use a camera to professional photographers accomplished with film but starting fresh with digital technology, as well as those who have no prior art experience at all.

Unique to this exhibition is the fact that all the photographs were created and edited with the artists’ own cell phone cameras.

Artists in the exhibition include Jarrett Gafford, Dawn S. Hargrett, Rebekka Huneke, Ramonita Rosa, Kimberlee Nicole Smith, Monika Sutton and Karl Young II from the beginning section, and James Alexander, Manfredo Bobadilla, Wildalys Class, Agustin Collazo Jr., Amanda Dodd, Evan Fountain, Mikko Maki, Alicia Morales and RaeAnne Swanson from the advanced section.

"We are deeply grateful to all the veterans and family members who were courageous and persistent enough to engage in the workshops and create their own photographic images," said Don Fuller, spokesman for the museum. "Their artwork creates a visual platform that changes the culture of the 'silent veteran' into a storyteller, a witness and amplifies the veteran voice within a larger community.

Exhibition hours are Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

For more information, call 813-974-4133 or email caminfo@usf.edu.