JUDY GELLES / Fourth Grade Project

February 8 – May 12, 2017

Fourth Grade Project began in 2008 when Judy Gelles volunteered in a fourth grade classroom at an elementary school in South Philadelphia. Over the course of eight years Gelles interviewed and photographed over 300 students from China, India, South Korea, England, Italy, St Lucia, South Africa, Nicaragua, and multiple regions of the United States. She asked all of the students the same three questions: Who do you live with? What do you wish for? and What do you worry about? Told in the students’ own words, these stories speak to the shared human experience across cultural and geographic boundaries.

Header image: Grade Teacher, Judy Gelles

About the Artist

Judy Gelles received her MFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and her Masters in Counseling from the University of Miami. Her work is in major collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has had residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Visual Studies Workshop, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Her work has been featured in Ms. Magazine; Vision Magazine, Beijing, China; Camerawork; New Art Examiner; Artweek and Photography Now. Judy Gelles is represented by Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia and DeSoto Gallery in Los Angeles. www.judygelles.com