Photo Flash: 'Rights of Passage' Exhibition Opening at National Arts Club

The opening reception of the 'Rights of Passage' exhibition took place at the National Arts Club on Friday, September 26th. Lynn Redgrave came out to celebrate in support of her daughter, Annabel Clark, and her work with fellow NY photographer Bruce Byers on the photography exhibition that benefits non-profit organizations providing children with a proper education and medical care.  Annabel Clark and Bruce Byers discussed their photographic work for Healing the Children, a charitable organization which provides free surgery for needy children, Chinese Agape Foundation, St. Baldrick's Foundation, and Action for Child Protection. Ms. Clark is widely-recognized for her collaboration with her mother, Lynn Redgrave on the highly acclaimed book, 'Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer.'  A portion of proceeds from print sales of the 'Rights of Passage' Exhibition will benefit all four charities.

The 'Rights of Passage' artists believe that every child deserves an education and medical care. Yet these basic rights remain unavailable to a large majority. New York-based photographers Bruce Byers and Annabel Clark work with non-profit organizations that provide these services to children and teens in disadvantaged communities around the world.

Byers has photographed medical missions in Bangladesh, Cambodia and China through the charities Healing the Children Northeast (www.htcne.org) and the Chinese Agape Foundation (www.new.china-missions.com). He also photographs children living with cancer in the U.S. through the St. Baldrick's Foundation (www.stbaldricks.org).

Clark connected with the Sierra Leonean charity Action for Child Protection (www.goderichwaldorf.org) to photograph a school that provides free education to street children, some of whom grew up as soldiers in their country's civil war. She has since gone on medical missions with 'Healing the Children' to photograph youth in Colombia and Brazil for whom cleft lip and palate surgeries are life altering.

In tandem, their photographs provide a glimpse into the lives of children in need. Given a free education and medical care, these children are able to rise above the challenges they have been born with so that they can not only integrate, but flourish in our world.

The exhibition runs from September 22th through October 16th, from 10 am to 5 pm daily and is free and open to the public.  The National Arts Club is located at 15 Gramercy Park South (at 20th Street).  

Annabel Clark was born in Topanga Canyon, California in 1981. She moved to New York in 2000 to pursue photography and received her B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design in 2003. During her final term at Parsons, she photographed her mother, actress Lynn Redgrave, during treatment and recovery from breast cancer. In 2004, the project was published as a six-page spread in The New York Times Magazine and then as the book 'Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer,' by Umbrage Editions. In June 2007, she began a traveling exhibition of 'Journal' at the Minnesota Center for Photography and has since exhibited at Peer Gallery, the Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing in New York City and Vassar College. Her editorial work has been seen in The New York Times Magazine, The Observer Magazine, Marie Claire, Glamour and Proto Magazine and she has worked as the stills photographer on several independent films. She also teaches photography workshops at the Creative Center, a nonprofit organization that provides free art classes to people living with cancer.  For more information please visit: http://www.annabelclark.net

Bruce Byers has been based in New York City since 1975, and has done a wide variety of photography work including people, high fashion, travel, and advertising. His clients include AT&T, Men's Health Magazine, Parenting Magazine, Cayman Islands Tourism, Tylenol and Volkswagen. His work has been exhibited internationally in Germany and Amsterdam and in New York City at the Bonnie Benrubi Gallery. He was instrumental in bringing photography to The Old Print Shop, where he is represented, by helping to develop the fine art photography section of the gallery. He has continued his fine art and documentary work in many other parts of the world. He also teaches photography at New York University. For more information please visit: http://www.brucebyers.com