upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024
Beverly has been a fine art documentary photographer for the last 30 years. She has witnessed first-hand Camden go from the prosperous years where everyone worked and lived well, to a city that has been described as the most dangerous city in America. Beverly’s images are of the children, the elders, and of the aged structures in her hometown. Her photographs show the eyes of the people, amongst the decay of the structures. Upon discovering in 2002 the secret history of slavery in her hometown she began three years of extensive research. In 2005 she curated an exhibition, which revealed her photographs of Pomona Hall the 18th century Big House. Later that year she organized the three-month long Still Standing Project, to recognize the enslaved Africans who toiled and suffered in Camden, which culminated in workshops, lectures, a silent procession, and the first-ever slave route tour. Her relentless research and fearless documentation resulted in Unhushed, a short documentary film, which she wrote, directed and produced as part of the Scribe Video Precious Places History Project, chronicling the story of slavery and plantations in Camden. In 2007, the film received honors at the Harlem Stage Film Festival and screened in the Philadelphia Film Festival. She is presently working on her second documentary film The Journey, about the effects of slavery on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in Accra, Ghana and Camden, New Jersey, and is planning a multimedia exhibit, which will include images and video interviews of Ghana, a 30 year retrospect of portraits of Camden and stories of it’s elders, and the images of the Slave Plantation Big House, Pomona Hall.