Witness to History: Selma Photography of Stephen Somerstein
Featuring a collection of photographs of the civil rights movement by a 1966 CNNY alumnus who traveled to Selma for the 1965 march.
Stephen Somerstein (b. 1941, New York) is a documentary photographer and physicist. He began photographing the neighborhoods in New York City including Greenwich Village, Harlem, and Manhattan. His body of work includes cultural subjects, social issues, and political movements from the 1960s.
As a Physicist, Somerstein is a pioneer in the field of nuclear fusion. He has built space satellites for the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Lockheed Martin. Most recently, he has designed optical instruments that are part of the James Web Space Telescope, due to be launched in December 2021.
An active photographer, Somerstein creates images with a sense of time and place, capturing the grace, dignity, and humanity of his subjects. He continues a lifelong pursuit of the ideal composition, in the style of W. Eugene Smith, and the decisive moment, as proposed by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
March 21st to Sunday, May 14, 2023
Exhibit Times:
Starting the week of March 20, 2023, the exhibit will run for 8 weeks on the following schedule:
- Week 1: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
- Week 2: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
- Week 3: Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
- Week 4: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
- Week 5: Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
- Week 6: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
- Week 7: Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
- Week 8: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
You can access the exhibit through the front of Shepard Hall during those times.
