Sevigny photography exhibition

Dean Alain Hentschel reported to Historic City News that, as part of the visiting artist series, Florida School of the Arts will present a gallery exhibition for photographer John Sevigny during September.

The exhibit will open with a reception on Thursday, September 1 at 7:00 p.m. in the Fine Arts Gallery located on St. Johns River State College’s Palatka campus. The exhibit will be on display through October 7, 2011. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Gallery exhibits are free and open to the public.

Sevigny’s documentary photographs focus on a variety of subjects, revealing the movement and struggle of people in search of survival in a bleak landscape of an impoverished Mexico.

“His portraits peel back our prejudices to expose the honor and humanity of those we rarely see but who are often defined in politically-charged discourse north of the border,” Hentschel told Historic City News.

Sevigny’s “Ladies’ Bar” series is the product of more than 10 months of work in some of the roughest cantinas in Guadalajara – Mexico’s second-largest city. The photos in this collection were taken in small bars frequented by criminals, drug addicts and aggressive drunks.

The photographer said he chose to focus on cantina women, those who work as prostitutes and paid drinking companions, in order to create a metaphor for the treatment of women in Mexico and beyond.

Sevigny’s works have been exhibited in the United States, Mexico and Portugal. He has worked as a photographer and writer for international news organizations including The Associated Press, and his news photographs have appeared in The New York Times, the Montreal Mirror and People magazine.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News contributed photograph by John Sevigny