Mark Ludak, MFA, assistant professor in the Department of Art and Design, will exhibit “Charlottesville Street After Unite the Right Rally” in the exhibition “Why We Look: Questioning the World Before Us” at the Vermont Center for Photography in Brattleboro, VT, March 6 through April 26, in VCP’s Main Gallery.
This year’s juried exhibition invited photographers to look outward—questioning the social, political, and environmental forces that shape our world. The selected works confront how we see, what we overlook, and the truths that demand our attention in a time of cultural and ecological reckoning.
The exhibition features images that grapple with the present: portraits addressing work, identity, and power; scenes at borders and in neighborhoods; landscapes marked by climate, extraction, or recovery; the built systems—water, housing, transit—that shape daily life; moments of protest and civic care; and conceptual work that questions evidence, authorship, or memory. Each of the photographers asks viewers to consider not only what we look at, but also when, how, and where that happens, and—most importantly—why.
The show of 40 photographers was juried by Marvin Heiferman, a curator, writer, editor, and producer. Heifeman organizes exhibitions and online projects about photography and visual culture for venues that have included: The Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution, International Center of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum, Castelli Graphics/Photography, and LIGHT Gallery. Author of 15 books, including “Photography Changes Everything” (2012 Smithsonian/Aperture) and “Seeing Science” (2019 Aperture/UMBC), Heiferman has contributed essays and articles to numerous artist monographs, museum catalogs, trade publications, magazines, and media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, Artforum, Gagosian Quarterly, Aperture, Art in America, and BOMB. Books edited include “Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images” by Maurice Berger (2024 Aperture/New York Times) and Nan Goldin’s “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” (1986 Aperture).
