Documenting the Lives of Others

[ Photo credit: Marco Werman ]

‘Always Go in on Your Tip-Toes’

Documenting the Lives of Others With Alex Harris and Marco Werman

Join us for a discussion with Marco Werman (T ’83), journalist and host of Public Radio International’s show, “The World,” and Alex Harris, Duke University professor and acclaimed documentary photographer. Together, the two will look back at Werman’s early work in journalism and documentary storytelling as an undergraduate student in Harris’s “American Communities” course, and explore how that experience has shaped Werman’s approach to telling other people’s stories. Recalling his experience in Harris’s class, Werman has said, “I keep my first photo [for that course] in a frame today on my desk at work. The man in the photo has his fist right in my lens. It serves as a reminder that I should always go into a story on tip-toes, never guns blazing.”

Free and open to the public. Light lunch served.

Related Coverage

“Rather than thinking of good photography — or good journalism — resting on strong technical skills, both Harris and Werman emphasized the need to be a certain kind of person, one who asks questions and really listens, one who notices objects and mannerisms and moods, and one who takes good care of the gifts of others’ time and stories and images.” —Margaret (Lou) Brown, Marco Werman and Alex Harris in Conversation, Forum Online