Prize-winning photographs by Fairfield University senior and Bridgeport resident in on-campus exhibit

October 30, 2006

Fairfield University announces a photographic exhibit, "The Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy: A Tribe on the Verge of Disappearance," featuring photographs by Larrabee Prize winner and Fairfield University senior, Kristin Powley. Her collection of 21 photographs will be on view at the University's Lukacs Gallery, Loyola Hall, Room 17 from Wednesday, Nov. 1 through Nov. 9. An opening reception and silent auction will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 1 between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. All proceeds from the auction will benefit the Sipayik Boys' and Girls' Club at the Pleasant Point Reservation.

Powley, a resident of Bridgeport, Conn., received the Larrabee Prize in Visual and Performing Arts in spring 2006 for her proposal to photograph within a Native American community in Maine. She shot on location at the Pleasant Point

Passamaquoddy Reservation in upstate Maine and the result is a unique blend of fine artistic talent and photojournalism.

Powley's desire to focus on Native Americans in contemporary culture stems from what she believes is "the misinformation that has pervaded America about who Natives are today and how they live."

The photographs on exhibit depict Passamaquoddy members and the environments in which they live. Some of the topics Powley explored when documenting the daily lives of the tribe, include the relationship between Natives and the Catholic Church, the history of the Passamaquoddy people and the deterioration of the tribal landscape.

Powley is a double major in Studio Art and English at Fairfield University.

Lukacs Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free.

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Vol. 39, No. 68

Fairfield University is a comprehensive Jesuit university that prepares undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students for leadership and service in a constantly changing world. In their 2007 editions, U.S.News and World Report's "America's Best Colleges" ranks Fairfield fourth among universities with master's programs in the North and The Princeton Review lists Fairfield among "The Best 361 Colleges." More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 35 states, 46 foreign countries, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are enrolled in the University's six schools. The University was founded in 1942 in the scenic shoreline community of Fairfield, Connecticut.