The Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA) recently awarded Carolyn Sherer of the Department of Physical Therapy a fellowship grant for visual arts media photography. ASCA awards fellowship grants to artists and arts administrators based on merit of work, career achievement, career potential, and service to the state. Fellowships are the most prestigious of grants awarded. Awards recognize artistic excellence as well as professional commitment and maturity. The Alabama State Council on the Arts is the official state arts agency of Alabama.
Sherer is an assistant professor and also a career photographer whose earlier work was published in the award winning book Just As I AM: Americans with Disabilities. She has exhibited and lectured nationally about this work. Recently, events in her life caused her to change focus to documenting her “personal world” in Alabama. She photographs her friends and family in settings she has purposely set, which allow for interaction with her and with the camera. These pieces show a very strong use of color and light and are very much in keeping with national trends to document the “everyday.”