Tom Wolff's U Street Portrait Project

Nationally recognized photographer turns his lens on the faces of D.C.'s U Street Corridor for a show at the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery

 October 28 to December 17

Opening reception: Friday, November 4 from 7-9 pm

Smith Center for Healing and the Arts has announced an upcoming exhibition of Tom Wolff's U Street Portrait Project, a new photographic exploration of the people and culture of D.C.'s U Street neighborhood, to open at the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery later this month.

Nationally recognized photographer Tom Wolff is best known for his published work in the Washington Post Magazine, House & Garden, Garden Design, Smithsonian Magazine, and New York Times Magazine. This fall he focuses closer to home with his most recent series, U Street Portrait Project, capturing the local business owners, residents, and artists that together make D.C.'s U Street Corridor a rich and diverse cultural center.

Wolff looks beyond the facades to meet his subjects and engage the individuals that make up this incredible neighborhood. His approach is simple; walk into a store just as one would in their daily routine, strike up a conversation, and ask for a photograph. Accordingly, when viewing Wolff's portraits one begins to feel like he/she is paused in an intimate conversation with the subject, and it is at that moment that Wolff has reacquainted us with our neighbor. He encourages us to stop, see our neighbors, and recognize that this vibrant neighborhood is not just comprised of the trendy new restaurants or bars, but also the people who enliven and enrich this community.

The show's sponsor, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, has itself been a fixture on U Street for almost a decade, offering arts, education, and health programs for the community, with a special focus on those affected by cancer. Driven by the core belief that participating in the arts is life-changing and crucial to the healing process, the organization opened its gallery space in 2008 to explore this connection and to show exhibits that educate, enlighten, empower, and cultivate healing.

The U Street Portrait Project will run from October 28 to December 17, with an opening reception on Friday, November 4 from 7-9 pm. The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery is located at 1632 U Street, in Northwest D.C. 

The Gallery is open Wednesday to Friday, 11am-5pm and Saturday, 11am-3pm, and by appointment.