Faces of Our Community

The photographic exhibition Faces of Our Community represents the collaborative effort between Green Mountain College digital photography students and the 2012 Poultney Earth Fair. The Poultney Earth Fair committee sought nominations to identify those individuals in their town who contribute to creating a sustainable Poultney community. Students at Green Mountain College were then assigned to photograph these nominees and prepare the final prints for exhibition at the 5th Annual Poultney Earth Fair, which is hosted each year by the Poultney High School. The nominees ranged in age from eight to eighty, from student to retired professional, and from “green” minded individuals to those who just happened to be doing sustainable valuable work without any such label consciousness.

The “Faces of Community” photographic project was coordinated by GMC photography professor Kevin Bubriski and Poultney Outreach Coordinator for Sustainable Community Development Jose Glavez-Contreras. Bubriski and Galvez-Contreras value such photographic projects as a vital way to connect the GMC students with their larger community, and to connect both GMC students and the townspeople with a greater awareness of their shared concerns for sustainable communities.

At the 6th Annual Poultney Earth Fair, Bubriski and Galvez-Contreras worked with the Green Mountain College photography students on the community photographic project “A Day in Life of Vermont Farmers.” The GMC students photographed farmers and their farms in the towns of Poultney, Pawlet, Tinmouth, Dorset, Rutland, Shrewsbury, Castleton and Wells. The students were encouraged to keep in mind the collective documentary goals of the project while also exercising their individual creativity in their approach to the photographic assignment.