The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism prepares students from a broad range of economic, racial and ethnic backgrounds to produce high-quality journalism at a time of rapid change. We are rooted in the core skills and ethics of journalism: strong reporting and writing, critical thinking, fairness and accuracy. We teach new technologies and storytelling tools across media platforms to engage audiences and promote a broader democratic dialogue. We serve our local and global news communities by sharing our reporting, research and facilities. We serve our profession by graduating skilled journalists, diversifying the voices in the media and encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship to help build a sustainable future for journalism.
Scars of Racism seeks to document the lasting physical reminders of racism on the American landscape. The legacy of racism exists throughout our society–in culture, language, and economics. With these photos I’m attempting to highlight how institutional racism of the past is present today.
In the last several years, there has been substantial reporting about how discriminatory housing policy fueled the massive wealth gap that exists today. White families’ wealth is as much as ten times higher than that of African-American families.
The project is also an exploration of how we observe. Compositionally, shooting from a few hundred feet directly above, decades of history fuse together to become a flattened plane, the abstract details of the past scratched onto roofs, streets, and sidewalks.
In turn, the act of viewing these images becomes an active questioning of the image. For a moment we are at a loss visually, with no sense of perspective, scale, or recognition other than the fragmented clues of marks on a landscape. The images challenge the brain and require us to look more carefully. In doing so, it prompts us to consider our relationship not only to the unfamiliar landscape, but to our history as well.
Artist Bios
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Travis Fox
Travis Fox is an aerial photographer and the Director of Visual Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York (CUNY).
In his role at the J-School, he oversees the Photojournalism, Documentary, Broadcast and Web Video programs. He also teaches the only Drone Journalism course on the East Coast.
Before drones and academia, Fox was recognized for helping establish a new form of video storytelling on the Internet. His short films for The Washington Post and FRONTLINE were described by Studio 360’s Kurt Andersen as “ambitious, subtle, tough, and remarkably beautiful.” Legendary television producer Tom Bettag adds: “extraordinary, sensitive and insightful.”
In 2006, Fox received the first Emmy Award presented to a web video producer. He was also the first and only person to win both the Editor of the Year and Videographer of the Year awards from the White House News Photographers Association. He has won dozens of National Press Photographers Association and Pictures of the Year International awards, and has been nominated for a total of eight Emmys.
Organizations
Scars of Racism
Featuring: Travis Fox
Locations
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
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