The self- taught photographer discovered she thoroughly enjoyed her new role: "Shooting was so liberating - I had no training in it and no censorship." Very early on, she had photographs published in Life and Time. In 1980 Chernush left her 9 to 5 "cushy" government job to see if she could make it as a freelance photographer. She said she has never looked back. Her assignments have taken her all over the world and she has photographed more than 50 feature stories for Smithsonian Magazine. Among her corporate clients are Microsoft, Lafarge, and Intel.
In 1973 Kay Chernush moved to Arlington and took a job with the Peace Corps as a public affairs writer
‘They' Look Like ‘Us'
Photographer captures the perspectives of prejudice.
By Delia Sava
Thursday, July 01, 2010 Bookmark and Share
Many of the faces featured in photographer Kay Chernush's exhibition at the Arlington Arts Center attended the opening night reception. Twenty Arlington residents agreed to be photographed and to share their stories of discrimination. The project titled "The Us & The They: Prejudice & Empathy In America's Smallest County," displays the photographic portraits along with text, describing the individual's experiences.
"I have had the idea for many, many years and it sort of evolved - it's grown out of my own experiences," said Chernush. An incident at a dinner party in Paris in 1964 when a Frenchman verbally attacked Chernush, citing America's treatment of blacks prompted her to ask him "in her college French" about the poor treatment of Algierians in France. "I had seen signs all over Paris of that and without knowing a word of English he said, ‘Oh, I have nothing against the Algierians, me myself, but I wouldn't want my daughter to marry one' and that made a huge impression on me, that he didn't know English and he was using the same expression we heard here in the States."
The Los Angeles native described her childhood as "pretty normal" but admits she was "desperate to get away" from the materialistic and superficial ethos of Hollywood and come east. Chernush attended Sarah Lawrence College where one of the writers she most admired, Joseph Campbell, was her professor in her senior year. The summer after graduation, she received a Fulbright grant to spend a "life-changing year" in India.
THEN INSTEAD of returning to the States, Chernush spent 2 years living in Altea, an idyllic fishing village in Spain, in a seven-room, 500-year-old house, 100 yards from the Mediterranean. During this time, "I had this notion that I wanted to be a writer," she laughed adding, "the problem for me was that I had too much training in writing - I know what great writing is and I had the idea of wanting to be a writer without having anything to say at that time." When her savings ran out, Chernush went to work for the Paris bureau of the New York Times.
In December of 1973 Chernush moved to Arlington and took a job with the Peace Corps as a public affairs writer. It was for an assignment in the Sahel region of Africa covering the drought that Chernush fell in love with photography. "They said, ‘you have to bring back pictures with your stories' and I said, ‘No problem, I'm a competent amateur' but in fact, I did not know how to load a camera," she laughed.
The self- taught photographer discovered she thoroughly enjoyed her new role: "Shooting was so liberating - I had no training in it and no censorship." Very early on, she had photographs published in Life and Time. In 1980 Chernush left her 9 to 5 "cushy" government job to see if she could make it as a freelance photographer. She said she has never looked back. Her assignments have taken her all over the world and she has photographed more than 50 feature stories for Smithsonian Magazine. Among her corporate clients are Microsoft, Lafarge, and Intel.
WITH HER CURRENT exhibition, Chernush said she hopes that people will take the time to read the stories. On the photos are self- descriptors of how the subjects see themselves; the text describes the perception of others. "I decided to go with what I was getting [from her subjects] because it was much more interesting than my own preconceptions … I discovered that prejudice comes in a context, it's not just being called a name … I wanted people to know them and to know their stories." As one stands to read the text, "If you look closely, you'll see your own reflection, and that's meant to suggest that we all have biases," she said.
Merian Sherrod, one of the participants said she found the exhibition thought-provoking and intriguing, especially reading what the other people had to say about their experiences. "When I read my own account of what happened, I realized I had set it aside for so long, that I'd gotten over it to a certain degree; however, when I read it and saw the pictures in conjunction with everything else, I was so moved emotionally, almost to tears. It was very moving for me," Sherrod said.
"Our Jenkins Community Gallery is dedicated to showing work that represents the diverse Arlington community," said Claire Huschle, executive director of the Arlington Arts Center. She added, "From the work of local school children to projects coordinated by other non- profits, the work in this space always reflects the things that are important, in some way or another, to our neighbors."
Huschle said she's impressed with Arlington County's dedication to keeping the dialogue about diversity open. "Kay's project was funded, in part, by a grant from the Arlington Commission for the Arts, which I find to be a perfect testament to this," she said.
When Chernush who is Jewish moved to Arlington in 1973, she said her relatives were horrified. "They said, 'You're going to live in Arlington, the home of the American Nazi party?'" Since that time she has seen "phenomenal changes" in Arlington: "The diversity just really makes you proud - it really makes you proud."
