Image Description:A white wall with horizontal and vertical rows of high quality photographs of the faces people of different ages, colors and features.
What is Positive Exposure?
Positive Exposure is an organization that uses the arts, film and narratives to present the humanity and dignity of individuals living with genetic, physical, behavioral and intellectual differences.
WITH Foundation first learned about Positive Exposure when we met founder Rick Guidotti at an AADMD Conference in 2015 where he was a keynote speaker.
Rick spent many years as an award-winning fashion photographer. But one day while he was on a break from a photo shoot, he had chance encounter on a Manhattan street with a stunning young girl with pale skin and white hair–a girl with albinism. He wanted to learn more about ablbinism, but what he found while researching the genetic difference startled and upset him. The images that he saw were sad and dehumanizing. In medical textbooks children with a difference were seen as a disease, a diagnosis first, not as people.
Image Description: A smiling man with light skin and light brown hair wearing a grey sweater.
Rick stopped working in the fashion industry and created Positive Exposure. WITH has supported Positive Exposure’s FRAME program (Faces Redefining the Art of Medical Education), a web-based platform presenting a series of short educational films and photographic galleries designed to help healthcare professionals, students (whether a medical, nursing, therapeutic or genetic counseling student) and families gain a robust understanding of developmental disability while modeling an attitude of respect for the humanity of the patients and capturing their beauty.
Now the exciting news!
The Grand Opening of POSITIVE EXPOSURE 109
PE 109, a community space celebrating human diversity through arts and culture, is opening in NYC’s East Harlem on Museum Mile in October. This innovative, new space is the first of its kind in the history of New York City. Set on NYC’s Museum Mile at 109th Street, Positive Exposure 109 will serve as central hub for showcasing the work of visual, performing and literary artists as well as providing educational and cultural programming. This multi-purposed community space will be the first of its kind, with a mission to break down barriers and broaden society’s perspective on diversity and inclusion for schools, teachers, families, community groups and help care professionals in New York City and the world around.
The Opening is October 3-5 and will feature a variety of multi-sensory works by a variety of artists including:
- The works of 10 finalists of the New York Department of Education’s Disability Pride Parade Visual Art Contest. The theme of the contest is Disability Rights are Civil Rights. The contest is an opportunity to increase awareness of disability history, the disability rights movement and to promote inclusion of people with disabilities.
- Photographs of the eyes of surgeons while they operate by Joseph Gascho, a cardiologist. “These images explore my fascination with the operating theater with its masked actors and their eyes, which portray their resolve, their emotions and their humanity.”
Image Description:The face of a masked white male holding a surgical instrument, only his eyes are showing.
- The works of textile artist and maker Sugandha Gupta. She creates with one vision in mind – to make valuable and unique textiles which are aesthetically pleasing and functional. She hopes to emphasize sensory engagement in experiencing art through her tactile visual textiles. Her work exist between the realms of art and design and carries a message of inclusion in society.
Image Description: A smiling young woman with white skin and hair wearing a black top and a white vest.
- Works from the Progressive Visions Photo Club and West Farm Photo Works. They are a group of photographers with disabilities who go out in New York neighborhoods to make images. The photographers have had their works exhibited in galleries in Queens, Manhattan, Long Island and Upstate NY and is a testament to their vision, talent, enthusiasm and creativity.
Image Description:Small group of people with cameras facing a red building, blue sky behind them.
The WITH Foundation is grateful for many ways Positive Exposure has changed how medical information is presented to health care professionals in training, clinicians, families and communities.
Read more about PE 109’s Grand Opening Events here.
The mission of WITH Foundation is to promote the establishment of comprehensive healthcare for adults with developmental disabilities that is designed to address their unique and fundamental needs.
Learn more about our history of grantmaking here.