Photographer's collection in library, on display

A haunting portrait of a girl from Maine, the disparate faces of a innercity high school and the poverty of Iraq under economic sanctions in the 1990s-these photos comprise the diverse work of photographer Olive Pierce.

Pierce recently agreed to archive her life's work at the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library. The current exhibit, Olive Pierce: Forty Years of Photographs (1963-2003), showcases her work chronologically in seven small assemblages. Included among them are "Vinalhaven, Maine," "Up River," "Iraqi Children under Sanctions" and "On the Bridge."

Though Pierce spent time in Iraq photographing the poverty created by the economic sanctions in 1999, her strongest photos are those of her home, New England.

"Up River" is one of Pierce's most distinctive collections. It chronicles the quirks and day-to-day routine of two fisherman families, the Carters and the Harveys, in coastal Maine. One picture in the collection captures a masked, young girl dragging a wagon filled with bread outside of a trailer home. Another poignantly features the Carter family men casually lined up for a group photo. Haphazardly arranged and with only a few scattered smiles among the seven, it resembles photographs that develop nine times out of 10 in family portraiture attempts. Viewers can relate even though the men are complete strangers.

One of Pierce's main goals is to tell the human story as a "social activist" said Karen Glynn, visual materials archivist for the Special Collections Library. The collection, "On the Bridge," exemplifies this aspect of her work. The assemblage features the demonstrations of both pro-war and anti-war groups at a town in Maine after the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. One shot in particular captures two men on opposite sides casually engaging in conversation while each holds an American flag bearing a different message. The piece speaks to the commonality among all of us even in times of political turmoil, an underlying theme to all of Pierce's work.

"I have found [my connection with others] in creating art about people," Pierce said. "People seem to me to be remarkably the same everywhere."

Olive Pierce: Forty Years of Photographs is on exhibit at the Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library until Dec. 14.