Visual Arts Teacher Receives Prestigious Award, Featured in Documentary Film

Visual Arts Teacher Anne Rearick has much to be proud of as a photographer.

She was recently invited to exhibit her work exploring life in post-apartheid South Africa at the internationally acclaimed photojournalism festival “Visa Pour L’Image” in Perpignan, France. Upon her return, she was awarded the Prix Roger Pic, given by the French organization Civil Society of Multimedia Authors (SCAM), in honor of her portfolio of South African images: the depth, long term commitment and the point of view, and the fact that her work celebrates the full lives of people she photographs rather than focusing on poverty. On the heels of these successes, Anne was one of three photographers featured in a documentary film made for French television that aired recently. The crew shadowed her while she photographed in the Basque country, a place she has documented for the past 25 years. She was the single American and only woman in the film.

"This has been an incredibly gratifying experience for me,” shared Anne, who also returns annually to Cape Town. “Everyone knows about the poverty and violence of townships. I am drawn to photographing the way people experience life in all its complexity and beauty: in schools, homes, and churches.

A self-proclaimed “documentary photographer working in the humanist tradition,” Anne has been photographing in South Africa for the past decade and over time has built strong relationships with some of the families that she has photographed. She has completed work on a book of these photographs, with a release date slated for fall of 2016. Her involvement with Visa Pour L’Image has garnered a great deal of international press, including articles in Liberation and The Monde, along with interviews on national French radio and television.

Visa Pour L’Image describes her exhibit as a “…display of humanist sensibility that conveys the spirit of South Africans who face endemic violence, extreme economic hardship, and unabated racism, yet still maintain dignity, hope and courage.”

Named after a well-known photojournalist and activist who captured the Vietnamese War, the Prix Roger Pic Award came as a surprise to Anne because the jury is composed of photographers, writers, and directors all based in France.

As a CSW teacher, Anne often shares her life experiences in class. She encourages discussion about how to capture and document images in communities with fewer resources, and the personal experience of being white with a camera and the power and responsibility that come with it.

“I tell students to be acutely aware and very careful with that power,” added Anne, who admitted she too struggled with that balance when she first arrived in South Africa. Even after so many years, it is still difficult for her to watch the cycle of poverty, and dwindling hope in life after apartheid. She is currently exploring the idea of creating a microfinance program for women in Langa township to create a sewing center that would specialize in traditional Xhosa clothing.

Her website displays many of the South African photographs to be included in the book along with work from Kazakhstan, the Basque country of France, and amateur boxing.

View her work at www.annerearick.com.