Initiatives > MVT Photo Walk: “Through the Looking Glass”
About the Show
“Through the Looking Glass” is a photography exhibit on display in Prather’s Alley and the 400 block of K Street NW in Mount Vernon Triangle. It features images by four photographers who are part of the Exposed DC photography community that has been documenting life in D.C. for over 16 years. Through their images, we are able to get to know the people and places that make this area so vibrant and inclusive, with a rich and full history. By documenting the people, places, and moments that collectively define this destination, these photos honor the community’s storied history while celebrating its continued evolution. You are invited to peer through the looking glass and see the neighborhood and D.C.’s development through the eyes of local photographers.
Support for this exhibit provided by the DC Office of Planning’s Streets for People Grant Program.
Featured Artists
Ashley Tillery is a self-taught photographer based in Arlington, VA. Prior to moving to Virginia, Ashley worked as a folklorist and exhibition designer in rural Alabama. The experiences gleaned from her time in Alabama laid the foundation for her ongoing commitment to photographing communities of color in all their splendor, hardship, transcendence, and often denied beauty.
Christopher Chen uses available light to document nightlife, the streets, the arts, and the urban landscape. Based in Washington, DC, his images have appeared on web and print publications like the Washington Post’s Sunday Magazine, Brightest Young Things, the Washington City Paper, DCist, Exposed DC, Yahoo! News, We Love DC, New York Magazine’s Grub Street, Style.com, and Time Out Chicago. He has also shown his work in group exhibitions curated by Project Dispatch, Exposed DC, Brightest Young Things, No Kings Collective, and JAB Arts, as well as solo shows at the Wild Hand Workspace (2013) and Lost Origins Gallery’s Outside space (2021).
Matailong Du is a photographer based in Washington, D.C. After working with National Public Radio (NPR), Leica Camera, and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), he began working as an independent photographer. His work has been published on The Washington Post, NPR, ABC News, etc. He also works closely with the Smithsonian Institution such as the National Portrait Gallery, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Postal Museum to cover behind-the-scenes stories, exhibit installations, performance arts, and portraits in Washington, D.C.
Shedrick Pelt is a D.C. creative originally from Huntsville, Alabama by way of Harlem, New York. Committed to culture and community, Shedrick has worked as a photographer, designer, and creative director for 10+ years, primarily focused on photojournalism and portrait, music, and commercial photography. Shedrick finds himself most inspired when amplifying the stories of grassroots organizations and the people committed to the work.
He has been featured in exhibitions at ICP (NYC), Center for Photography at Woodstock, Dupont Underground, theGrio, Exposed DC, and Washingtonian Magazine, and has been profiled by numerous radio stations and podcasts in D.C. and Alabama. Shedrick’s work was also featured at the Phillips Collection in their 2021 juried exhibition “Inside Outside, Upside Down,” and he continues to curate his Look Hear Gallery which is a revolving gallery that features the Black experience in D.C. through the lens of Black photographers.
About the Photographs
Read more about the details and inspiration for the photographs in each exhibit below:
