Partner Organization: exalt
Final Project: Living This Life
Sarah Stacke is a photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. One of her current documentary projects takes place in Western North Carolina where she photographs the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. Sarah is also working on Love From Manenberg, a long-form documentary project in Cape Town, South Africa, and another project in the Democratic Republic of Congo where she’s developing an archival repository in collaboration with photographers in Kinshasa.
In addition to making photographs, Sarah teaches and generates projects that ask viewers to think critically about cross-cultural visual literacy at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies. Sarah has written about photography for The New York Times Lens Blog and the Nasher Museum. She is the curator of exhibitions including Keep All You Wish: The Photographs of Hugh Mangum and AfriPost: Epistolary Journeys of African Pictures.
In 2012 she received a Master of Arts from Duke University tailored to research photographic representations of sub-Saharan Africa and the diaspora. Also at Duke, Sarah received certificates in African and African American Studies and Documentary Arts with a focus on multimedia.
Clients and publications include The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time Out New York, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Miami Herald, The Boston Globe, Marie Claire, YMCA, KARIBU Kinshasa, HOPE Cape Town, SONKE Gender Justice Network, and Yéle Haiti.
She began her career as an assistant to Burt Glinn of Magnum Photos.
About being a Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow, Sarah says, “This is an incredible opportunity to work with Exalt Youth, an organization that serves youth in the criminal justice system. As a photographer I’m interested in intersections of culture, history, and geography that have created marginalized communities. The disproportional incarceration rates within black communities have marginalized many people with devastating consequences. Exalt inspires youth at a critical crossroad to believe in their worth and transform themselves to reflect that worth and create lasting change. Documentary has the power to subvert the stereotypes surrounding incarcerated youth, inspire new ways of looking, and motivate people around the related social issues of racism and poverty. I can’t wait to get to work.”
For her fellowship, Sarah is working with Exalt Youth in Brooklyn.
To see more of Sarah’s work, visit: www.sarahstacke.com
