Tues, February 17 – Sat, March 21
Join us for an exhibit of remarkable travel journals and images of war and peace photographed by journalist Dan Eldon, who celebrated his life and death at age 22 as a creative activist, and whose art became a means of positive social change. Opening reception on Friday, February 27, from 6 pm to 9 pm. A film festival and panel discussion with producers, directors, actors, and journalists on creative activism will also be held. Please see the SMC Student Creative Activist Film Festival listing in Special Events for details.
The exhibition, featuring one of Dan’s journals, will be opened by Producer/Director Tom Shadyac, Dan’s mother Kathy Eldon and sister, Amy Eldon Turteltaub.
The traveling exhibit of Dan Eldon’s work, JOURNEY: Images of War/Celebrations of Peace, is a powerful, affecting tribute to a young artist and his rich, brief life. Containing photographs from Dan’s work in Somalia with the Reuters News Agency, large reproductions of his collages, and a variety of art supplies and personal belongings, the exhibit has inspired audiences in six countries.
Dan Eldon was the son of a British father and American mother, who grew up in Kenya, and attended four colleges in England and the US, including the Pasadena Community College and UCLA. At the age of 21, he was among a small cadre of journalists who alerted the world to a major famine in Somalia. As many as 1,000 people a day were starving to death when Newsweek, Time, and many international daily newspapers began to pick up Dan’s images in 1992, triggering an international mission to deliver aid to Somalia. One year later, Dan and three colleagues were killed by an angry mob in the aftermath of a tragic bombing raid by UN troops that killed or wounded more than 100 Somalis.
Although more than a decade has passed since his death, Eldon’s images remain fresh and relevant, as do Eldon’s collages—sometimes meditative, sometimes joyful, often humorous—created in journals which he began keeping at age 15 and maintained until his death. Together with his compelling photographs, they are an inspiring record of what it means to grow up in a complex world with one’s eyes and ears wide open.
