Article about Photo Essay in the Needham Times

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Resident raises money for Haitian university through photography

By Debra Filcman/ Staff Writer
Thursday, June 8, 2006

Where in the world is Rebecca Sherman?

In the past year, she’s gone from Denmark to Philadelphia, to South Africa, then Haiti, and finally, back to her hometown, Needham. Leapfrogging from one city, or country, to the next, it may be difficult to keep track of her. But no matter where she’s gone, it’s her upbringing on Washburn Avenue that’s afforded her these opportunities.

Sherman, who graduated last month from the University of Pennsylvania, initially left town to pursue that degree. Though the campus is just a few hours’ car ride away, her travels across the globe weren’t far off.

"I’m this upper-middle-class, white, educated woman ... basically, privileged," she said, a bit shyly, sitting at her parents’ kitchen table in jeans and a purple T-shirt.

But despite her ideal circumstances, her community service-oriented parents, religion and high school taught her to give back.

Sherman, who studied sociology and photography, developed a passion for social justice over the years - both documenting the injustices and working toward rectifying them.

She met University of Notre Dame student Brian McElroy last summer while on fellowship in Denmark with Humanity in Action, a human rights organization. McElroy, who’d visited Haiti once before, was itching to get back. While Sherman traveled to South Africa for a semester abroad, McElroy got a job in Haiti as the secretary of the first rural university in Haiti, the University of Fondwa.

"I was trying to promote what the university was doing for rural communities in Haiti," McElroy said. "In Denmark, she was the one always walking around with her camera, taking great photos."

So it didn’t take long for McElroy to realize the benefit of joining forces, and asked her to visit Haiti upon her return from South Africa to create a photo essay of the community in Fondwa.

The project would help raise money for the university, which offers degrees in agronomy, business and veterinary medicine.

"They only offer degrees in subjects that are useful to the Haitian peasantry, so they can return to their villages and give back," Sherman said.

Sherman agreed to work on the project, but first had to find a means of getting to Haiti.

"I’d just been traveling and really had no money left, ya know what I mean?" she said, shrugging.

The trip, which didn’t at first have her family’s approval or monetary support, would cost her $700; most of the money went toward the plane ticket, vaccinations and just $5 per day for her room and board, which "buys you a lot of rice and spaghetti," she said.

"My mother thinks I only take photos of starving people," Sherman said, with a quick roll of the eyes. "And who wants to see that, right?"

So, Sherman went to her temple, Beth Shalom, seeking funding for the trip, as well as to her school adviser and the Knights of Columbus - and got it from all three.

"The rabbi doesn’t even know me, but he quickly agreed to help me out," Sherman said. "Judaism has a very strong social action component, but I feel a lot of it is rhetoric. This wasn’t."

The money she received from the local organizations was the seed money, she said, to do greater good.

"The community gave me $700, and I have a responsibility to raise twice that," she said.

Her photo essay, which is viewable on the university’s and village’s Web sites, will also enjoy a viewing at the University of Pennsylvania in October. Prints of her photos, framed in crafts from Haiti, will be available for sale.

"I’ve also used her photos to explain to my friends and family where I’ve been and why what I’ve been doing is important," McElroy said.

Her photos depict the poverty, the deforestation, the lack of technology and the general plight of rural Haitians.

Because that’s what her work does for many, she’s very aware of her representations of "the other" from her studies at school, and the disparity in power between herself and her subjects, she said, "At first, I thought, ’Oh no, I’m the colonizing American and no matter what I do, I’ll be contributing to their exploitation.’

"First photos taken by missionaries who would photograph poor people - sound familiar?" she said. "They’d show them as heathens and use the photos to raise money - sound familiar? It’s not that dissimilar from what I do."

Instead, Sherman said, she photographed the young girl who walked miles to fetch two gallons of water, or the farmers planting crops on mountains because there is no flat land."

Her photos can be viewed at www.unif2004.org.

Debra Filcman can be reached a dfilcman@cnc.com.