PROOF THROUGH THE NIGHT: The Black & White Work of Paul Pearce
June 7, 2014 to July 19, 2014
Proof Through the Night is a retrospective of traditional silver-based photography and lithographs by Paul Pearce, a certified disabled combat veteran who now declares himself to be a “backward observer”. His photography focuses on issues of war and morality and questions the very notion of civilization. In his words about what inspires him to photograph he states: “In spite of growing cynicism, I have a calling to declare a point of view, a mandate to cry out that (in my opinion), the sky is falling, and a gnawing need to expose a system that turns innocent children into monsters.”
Pearce was raised as an All-American boy, Sunday school attendee and college-bound Eagle Scout. He was drafted into the Army, commissioned as an artillery Lieutenant and ordered into combat in Vietnam as a forward observer with the 114th infantry. He returned from the war motivated to raise consciousness about the evils of war. Armed with a camera and a printing press he taught himself photography, struggled for peace and justice as an artist and anti-war activist, and participated in and documented antiwar protests including the massive action in Syracuse following the killings at Kent State.
Sustaining Sponsor: Ruth Putter