Wendy Ewald with Dr. MLK Jr. School students and teachers

Wendy Ewald is KSMoCA’s 2022–2023 artist in residence. For over 40 years, she has worked on photography projects around the world with children, families, women, and teachers. At Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School she collaborated on three projects with students, teachers, and Portland State University students: Reading Pictures, Retratos y Sueños (Portraits and Dreams), and The Best Part of Me.

In anticipation of the exhibitions, our PSU students created a zine to share Wendy Ewald’s work with students at Dr. MLK Jr School.

Wendy Ewald was born in Detroit, MI, in 1951. She has received many honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation, the Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Fulbright Commission. She has had solo exhibitions nationally and internationally and her work is documented in books and a recent film.

Wendy Ewald’s artist talk for students in the Dr. MLK Jr. School library

Reading Pictures poster workshop

Reading Pictures explores Teaching and Learning through Photography and is based on Wendy’s collaboration with partners in Tanzania from the past ten years to create photographic teaching materials for school curriculums. She currently works with the University of Dodoma to develop posters that are used in classrooms to connect learning through pictures. Dr. MLK Jr. School teachers and students collaborated with PSU students to make their own versions.

Students generate a poster for *Reading Pictures*

Students study a student-generated poster on patterns and texture as part of Wendy Ewald’s artwork *Reading Pictures*

The Best Part of Me school-wide activity

The Best Part of Me asked every student in the school “What is the best part of you?” and pairs students’ written answers with a photograph of their best part.

Naz’s description of his brain, his favorite part of himself

Retratos y Sueños (Portraits and Dreams) mentorship collaboration

Retratos y Sueños (Portraits and Dreams) is based on a 1991 project Wendy did in with Maya, Ladino, and Tzotzil children living in Chiapas, Mexico, guiding her students in taking their own pictures of their daily lives, dreams, desires, and fantasies. At KSMoCA, college students mentored elementary school students to take photos of their dreams and lives at home and school.