Zalcman's 'Signs of Your Identity' Launch and Exhibit

Jimmy Kevin Sayer attended Muskowekwan Indian Residential School (1983-1984). “I’ve spent half my life incarcerated, and I blame residential school for that. But I also know I have to give up my hate because I’m responsible for myself. I have three adult daughters, and I was in jail for the duration of their childhoods. I have a two-year-old son now, and I need to be there for him. I have to be different.” Image by Daniella Zalcman. Canada, 2015.

For her project "Signs of Your Identity," photographer Daniella Zalcman juxtaposed her subjects against something related to his or her experience with Canada's Indian Residential Schools. In 2008, the Canadian government apologized for the residential school system, which eventually a commission officially labeled "cultural genocide." "It was the worst 10 years of my life," said Mike Pinay, pictured against the residential school he attended from 1953 to 1963. "I was away from my family from the age of 6 to 16. How do you learn about family? I didn't know what love was. We weren't even known by names back then. I was a number." Image by Daniella Zalcman. Canada, 2015.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016 (All day) to Friday, November 4, 2016 (All day)

Join 2016 FotoEvidence Book Award winner Daniella Zalcman for the launch of her new book "Signs of Your Identity" at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York on Wednesday, October 26, 2016.

Zalcman discusses her reporting and signs her book during the evening, which also includes an exhibition of Zalcman's "Signs of Your Identity" photography along with the work of FotoEvidence Book Award finalists Mario Cruz, Narciso Contreras, Hossein Fatemi and Ingetje Tadros. The exhibit runs through Friday, November 4, 2016.

The FotoEvidence Book Award is given each year to a photographer whose work demonstrates courage and commitment in documenting social injustice. As part of the award, FotoEvidence published Zalcman's work into the book, "Signs of Your Identity."

"Signs of Your Identity" documents the stories of indigenous Canadians who were placed in church-run boarding schools in order to force their assimilation into the dominant culture. Zalcman uses double exposure portraits to portray her subjects. These multiple exposure portraits juxtapose survivors with the sites where those schools once stood, artifacts of forced assimilation and places where, even today, First Nations people struggle to access services that should be available to all Canadians.

For more information on Zalcman's project and to order "Signs of Your Identity," visit the FotoEvidence website.

2016 FotoEvidence Book Award Book and Exhibit Launch
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street
New York, New York, 10025

The exhibit at Cathedral of St. John the Divine runs through Friday, November 4, 2016.

FotoEvidence Book Award 'Signs of Your Identity' Launch and Exhibit