January 27, 2010; My exhibition India — A Light Within with writers Neema Avashia and Zilka Joseph is featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today. Sarah Bauknecht, the writer of the article, did an excellent job of understanding the many pieces of the work. She starts the piece by saying, "If you've ever doubted the ability of photography, dance and writing to work in harmony, think again..." Here's the link: www.post-gazette.com/pg/10027/1031210-437.stm. This Sunday, January 31, all the pieces of my Indian collaboration come together when we have a reading by Neema and Zilka, and a dance performance by Sreyashi Dey, at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, from 1-3. Please come if you want some color and warmth. The event is free.



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January 21, 2010; This past November I was invited to speak at Pittsburgh's first TEDx event. I spoke about my Indian work with Neema Bipin Avashia. I learned that the eight minute talk was just posted. If you'd like to hear it, the address is:
http://www.lpinc.org/tedxlp/presenters/Brodsky.asp. Also, on January 31, we have an event that is accompanying my exhibition India — A Light Within. The event features Odissi classical dance performers Sreyashi Dey and her daughters; and readings by Neema Bipin Avashia and Zilka Joseph. It is at the Jewish Community Center in Pittsburgh and is from 1:00 to 3:00. Sreyashi, Neema, and Zilka are my bridges to India.



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January 4, 2010; Melissa Hiller, the director of the American Jewish Museum (AJM), and I just finished placing the photographs for my two upcoming exhibitions at the AJM which is in the Pittsburgh Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. Fortunately, a talented art installer will be doing the actual hanging so I don't need to deal with levels, rulers, or nails. The exhibitions are: I Thought I Could Fly...; and, India, A Light Within. Both exhibitions run from January 4 until March 31, 2010. There's a reception for I Thought I Could Fly...  on January 14 from 7 to 9; and for India, A Light Within on January 31 from 1 to 3. Both receptions feature a program—Fly features a presenation from 7:30 to 8:30; India features a reading and a dance performance from 1:30 to 3:00. If you're in the area, please stop by. Call the JCC for gallery hours, 412-521-8011. I owe enormous thanks to Joni Schwager of the Staunton Farm Foundation for her heartfelt commitment to the Fly... (mental illness) project. After its run at the JCC, a traveling version of the work, underwritten by the Staunton Farm Foundation, will be shown at five sites in Western Pennsylvania. I also owe enormous thanks to everyone who contributed their stories to the project. Not only was this an investment of time on their part, it was a brave act to share a difficult and sad part of their lives with others. Our country needs to understand how to help all its citizens with their physical and mental health needs. If you are interested in this work on mental illness, the book I Thought I Could Fly... Portraits of Anguish, Compulsion, and Despair is available through Amazon.com. The work is also available as an exhibition.

I'm excited to start teaching again after my supported leave from the university.
My time away was rewarding. One important outcome — I realized that I exist even
if I don't get email from students.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[Please note: As I post this news item and look at how the 'page' is displayed on my site, the technology is making some strange line breaks. This is odd behavior on the part of the program... not new typographic invention on my part. I've already spent too much time trying to fix the problem with no success. I continue to love and hate technology.]



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October, 2009; Yesterday, October 11, was my birthday. In the morning, I took a walk and photographed my buddy (dog) Sam. He doesn't complain as long as I bring bones. You can see the results of these walks by looking under 'handmade' books. I hope Sam becomes famous. Becky Katterson and I are still working to refine and tweak this site, but we just uploaded many of my projects. Other than photographs of my dog, you'll see that I'm a documentary photographer who has photographed subjects such as Western Pennsylvania neighborhoods when the steel industry left, India, breast cancer, girls, extreme weight loss, and mental illness. There's also work that is not on this site so please let me know if you'd like know more about what I do. I hope you enjoy looking and please email me if you'd like to connect. Btw, at the end of the month, my Indian work with prose by writers Zilka Joseph and Neema Bipin Avashia, will be on view at the Duderstadt Gallery in Ann Arbor from 10/26 to 11/10. At the opening on October 30, there will be a reading by Ms. Joseph and a dance performance by Sreyashi Dey.

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September, 2009; I'm writing this on September 2. The weather's changed abruptly and August's humidity is gone, at least for now. Students started their CMU fall semester, but I'm on leave and I'm working at home. If you are visiting my site and are wondering where my photographs are, the site is under construction. But now the "News" section is active. My former student, Becky Katterson, an interaction designer who is now out in the world and doing wonderfully, is designing my site. She discovered the way of adding this 'blog' element so that I can add my 'news' when there is some. Because Becky is out in the world working, is settling into a new home and planning her wedding, there's a lot on her plate and my site sits with the decorative radish—she loves working on it but it's not the main food group. We all know that the gourmand's feast may take 15 minutes to eat, but two days to prepare; the building of this site is similar (as are many of our efforts in life). The behind the scenes time and intense effort is often only known to the maker—not the dinner guest. There are many quirks when building a site, and Becky is figuring them out. This takes time.

To give you some news:

•I am working intensely on my Indian photographs, and they are almost ready for an exhibition in Ann Arbor which will be up by October 26. Writers Zilka Joseph and Neema Bipin Avashia are a major part of the exhibition, too. Their words are seen with my images. Both Zilka and Neema are non-resident Indians living in the States. Zilka is concentrating on a manuscript now; Neema is getting ready to go back into the classroom in the Boston public schools, where she teaches.

•When life gets tough I turn to Sam, my dog. Feeling low for family reasons, Sam and I started and finished another Sam book. It's about his tail. He didn't have a clue what I was up to chasing his bum around Pittsburgh streets; even though he's used to the camera, he was confused by where I was pointing it.

•There's a new, indepth review of my book, I Thought I Could Fly..., at: http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=5103&cn=166.

I am not sure when my photo projects will be on the site. Please come back and check if you want to see my work.

Thank you.

- charlee

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June, 2009; I'm writing this on June 1. Our university spring semester recently ended and I now have time to turn to my own projects.

So what's in the works?

I will be photographing! And,

• Some of my work will be featured in the Carnegie Museum of Art's exhibition Digital to Daguerreotype: Photographs of People, which is Linda Benedict-Jones’ first curated exhibition at the museum since she became its curator of photography in December 2008. By the way, the Pittsburgh photo community is overjoyed with Linda’s appointment.
• I will continue to work with Lydia's Place, whose mission is to help female offenders with their lives. We'll post soon what my students produced last term when they each partnered with a female offender through Lydia's Place.
• Although I went to India two summers ago, I am still working on images I made there. A team of us — Sreyashi Dey, a classical Indian Dancer, and writers Neema Bipin Avashia and Zilka Joseph, are preparing for two exhibitions — one at the University of Michigan in October and the other at the American Jewish Museum at the JCC in January, 2010.
• I'm working with the American Jewish Museum on an exhibition of my mental illness work (I Thought I Could Fly...) that will travel to six sites in Western Pennsylvania. This exhibition will include a ten minute film that Douglas/Steinman Productions is making. The exhibition/film is funded by the Staughton Farm Foundation whose mission is to lessen the stigma surrounding mental illness, specifically in Western Pennsylvania. The exhibition will open at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Pittsburgh in January, 2010.
• Marick Press will be publishing From Mill Town to Mall Town. I worked on this project with writers Jane McCafferty and Jim Daniels. This book explores the two contiguous worlds of Homestead, Pennsylvania. One is a shopping/ entertainment complex with lots of national chain stores; the other is what was once a vibrant steel mill town. These two Homesteads are separated by railroad tracks physically. Other factors, such as cultural and economic differences, separate them, too.
• I continue to photograph my partner, Sam. Sam is my beloved neurotic barkaholic dog and the protagonist of my handmade Sam books.

Thank you for visiting this page, and thank you to Becky Katterson for nudging and pushing me into launching a site. We hope that this site will be more than a news page and be up and running by July 1.