AUGUSTA — Maine photographer Séan Alonzo Harris’s “Light Confirms My Reality,” a community-based photo project and exhibition in collaboration with faculty and students at the University of Maine at Augusta and the Charles Danforth Gallery, is scheduled to be on view Wednesday, March 9, through Thursday, March 31, at the 46 University Drive gallery.

The exhibition includes selections from recent photographic projects including Visual Tensions, I Am Not A Stranger and The Space Between, according to a news release from UMA.

“These projects are a proclamation of radical inclusivity, an invitation to see differently, and transform our images and perceptions of others. The photographic document serves to engage the critical issues of race and representation and to make visible the varied, full humanity and expansive beauty of black people,” writes Harris.

Harris’s exhibition and surrounding events, including a community art project, an artist’s talk, and a keynote discussion with the Portland Museum of Art’s Judy Glickman Lauder Associate Curator of Photography Anjuli Lebowitz, are sponsored by UMA’s Cultural Events Council.

Harris said, “Amid the pandemic and nationwide protests spurred by the recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and George Floyd in Minnesota, I found myself returning to Ralph Ellison’s text Invisible Man. Ellison’s portrayal of how black men are perceived and received resonates deeply with my personal experience, the urgency of the moment, and asks the viewer to see the complexity of race and identity. I continue to ask the question, how can we see differently and how might seeing differently build bridges across differences? Light Confirms My Reality returns to the themes in … Invisible Man and engages community members in dialog about seeing and cultivating belonging in our current moment of social fracture and social alienation.”

A group of 10-15 participants will be selected by lottery to work with Harris, Charles Danforth Gallery Director Dr. Amy Rahn, and Peter Precourt in a three, two-hour workshops to create a collaborative project plan. This project is open to members of the community who can be present for in-person workshops in Augusta.

The workshop is set for 4-6 p.m. on Mondays, March 7, 21 and 28.

The gallery in Jewett Hall is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Follow Danforth Gallery on Facebook and Instagram, and view current, past and upcoming exhibitions at danforth.uma.edu. For more information, email [email protected].