exhibitions

Inspiring Change: The Photography of Chip Duncan and Mohamed Amin

May 10, 2018 – October 21, 2018

Featuring the work of internationally recognized author, photographer, and filmmaker Chip Duncan, president of the Milwaukee-based Duncan Entertainment Group Inc., alongside acclaimed African photographer Mohamed Amin (1943-96), a Kenyan photojournalist responsible for exposing Ethiopia’s famine crisis globally in the 1980s, this exhibition showcases photography as a catalyst for broad, lasting, impactful change.

Three separate galleries of photographs and documentary videos will guide viewers through Chip Duncan’s approach to photographing in the field as well as his view of Africa from the perspective of a writer and filmmaker. Alongside, Mohamed Amin’s work, pulled from the vast Camerapix archive now run by his son Salim, shows images of Africa through the decades, following war, political upheaval, famine, and disaster, seen through the lens of a man dedicated to inciting change through images.

Chip Duncan continues to document effects of war and humanitarian crises on everyday people in over 40 developing countries around the world. His numerous projects include chronicling health care conditions in Burma for Relief International and Save the Children in the Afghanistan countryside, and working on livelihood, health, and education initiatives in rural Kenya with the Loisaba Community Conservation Foundation.

Duncan and Amin’s work will be shown at a time when reaching across cultural, economic, and philosophical divides is becoming increasingly difficult. We plan to engage this exhibition with a series of programs that help soften barriers to thoughtful exchange.

This is Duncan’s first exhibition in Milwaukee.

We are excited to welcome Salim Amin, Mohamed Amin’s son, to Milwaukee on May 18, 2018 for a screening of Mo & Me — a documentary film about Mohamed Amin’s life and work. (See program descriptions below for more information.)

This exhibition was made possible by the generous contributions from our supporters.

                                       

 

Exhibition Programing

May 18,  6:30-9:30 p.m.
Social Gathering, Screening of the film Mo & Me, and Discussion with Chip Duncan and Salim Amin  

Join the Charles Allis Art Museum, The Friends of the Charles Allis, and Ellenbecker Investment Group in welcoming Salim Amin, Nairobi-based filmmaker and son of internationally acclaimed African documentarian Mohamed Amin, and Chip Duncan, Milwaukee's own award-winning filmmaker/photographer for a special reception and film screening.

This event is intended to foster conversation and learning about why these two award-winning storytellers from disparate countries share a common mission: to help soften barriers to thoughtful exchange. 

Following a social hour, guests will be treated to a screening of Mo & Me. In the 90-minute documentary, Salim, son and only child of Mohamed "Mo" Amin, undertakes a journey of recollection and reflection into the life of his father -- the most renowned photojournalist of his era.

Brad Pruitt, executive director of America's Black Holocaust Museum, will moderate a discussion with Salim and Chip following the film.

7:00-8:30 p.m. Screening of Mo & Me
8:30-8:45 p.m. Intermission
9:00-9:30 p.m. Moderated Q&A with Salim and Chip

Guests are eligible to enter a raffle to win a copy of Chip's newly released book, "Inspiring Change: The Photographic Journey of Chip Duncan." 

$10 Suggested Donation | Cash Bar | Limited Parking Spots Available - 
contact Michael at mkeiley@cavtmuseums.org for more information

Click here to register for this event in advance.

June 7, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Public Exhibition Reception with Chip Duncan 

Join us for an exhibition reception with documentary filmmaker and photographer Chip Duncan. He will speak about his work as a photojournalist abroad starting at 7:00 p.m.

Members’ preview, 5:30–6:00 p.m. Free admission. Cash bar, refreshments served.

 

Chip Duncan Film Series

June 21, 7:00 p.m. Tolkien and Lewis

On a blustery British evening in 1931, noted authors C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien spent several hours together in Lewis’ Magdelan College rooms at Oxford. Along with fellow “Inkling” Hugo Dyson, the three scholars engaged in a debate well suited to their backgrounds as mythologists. On one side, Dyson and Tolkien argued that Christianity followed similar traditions to other myths but that it was “the true myth.” A former atheist who, at the time, had become a theist, Lewis argued from his non-Christian perspective. This documentary tells the story of that pivotal conversation. (56 minutes)

August 30, 7:00 p.m. The Sound Man, followed by Q&A

This documentary features 62-year-old location sound engineer Abdul Ramadhan. After graduating from a local madras in central Nairobi, Abdul learned his craft on the job at Nairobi’s Camerapix production company where he’s been employed for more than thirty-five years. While working with acclaimed photojournalist Mohamed Amin and others, Abdul recorded the sounds of revolution, civil war, genocide and famine throughout East Africa. Abdul speaks candidly about the tragedies he’s witnessed, and provides gripping detail about the civil war in Sudan, the genocide in Rwanda, revolution in Somalia and Ethiopia, and the current tribal conflicts in Kenya. Abdul has traveled the continent for his work, yet he continues to reside in his boyhood home in Africa’s largest slum, Kibera. (27 minutes)

September 20, 7:00 p.m. Mo & Me

Salim Amin, son and only child of Mohamed “Mo” Amin, undertakes a journey of recollection and reflection into the life of the frequently absent, globe-trotting father he loved, revered and feared. Training his candid lens across continents, Mo Amin’s thirst for breaking news puts him repeatedly in harm’s way — enduring weeks of torture, automatic arms fire, explosives and ultimately the amputation of his left arm — to become one of the most decorated news cameraman of all time. The film is underpinned by extraordinary images from the vast Amin archive — currently available at World Picture Network in New York — that mark and frame Mo’s life as it unfolds in a vivid and, at times, grisly tableau of international politics. (36 minutes)

Curatorial Walk-Throughs

Guided tours of the exhibition with a member of our curatorial staff

May 24, 6:00 p.m.
June 6, 1:00 p.m.
June 21, 6:00 p.m. Followed by screening of Tolkien and Lewis.
July 11, 1:00 p.m.
September 20, 6:00 p.m. Followed by screening of Mo & Me.
October 10, 1:00 p.m.