Howard Zehr

Howard Zehr divides his attention between justice and photography – and is happiest when the two interests converge. He has worked professionally as a photographer and photojournalist, both in the North America and internationally. His current involvements are primarily in documentary, portrait and landscape photography. He occasionally leads classes and seminars on photography. Since 1996 he has been Professor of Restorative Justice at the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, though he is now largely retired. For more information see Still Doing Life: 22 Lifers 25 Years Later. Published by The New Press, March 2022, with exhibits to open in Philadelphia, PA and elsewhere starting in May 2022. Autumn Leaves: Reflections on Aging. Spitzer Art Center, Harrisonburg, VA, May 2015. Also at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Center, August 2015. Photographer for Albert M. Greenfield Restorative Justice Program of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program for adjudicated teenagers, 5/07. A ladder without rungs: exploring metaphors of trauma. Art exhibit including photos, paintings and reflections, with Judah Oudshoorn and Manas Ghanem, Eastern Mennonite University Art Gallery, 11/05. Also exhibited in Ontario, Canada March-April 2006 and Bluffton University, Bluffton, OH, Feb-March 2007. A smaller traveling version is also being itinerated by Mennonite Central Committee’s Audiovisual library. Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims (see book below). Bodies in Motion, a play based on Transcending, written and directed by Ingrid DeSanctis, traveled for several years. An exhibit of this project was featured on the Washington Post Cameraworks website, 12/01 through 2002. Also a student-curated exhibit at Skidmore College, NY, Sept.-Dec. 2003. God Cannot Let His People Die - portraits and interviews from the church in Southern Sudan, in cooperation with the New Sudan Council of Churches, 1994-95. Traveling exhibits. The Meaning of Life - portraits and interviews with men and women serving life without parole. Traveling exhibit. (See book, Doing Life). Photos and interviews in West Bank for Dry Roof and a Cow (book published by Mennonite Central Committee; Howard Zehr was also editor and photography coordinator). What Will Happen to Me? (with Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz) (Good Books 2011) Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences (Good Books, 1996 & 2011) "Photography can become meditation or violence," Council on Church and Media Forum, December 1995. "Precise Transparency Exposure Control: How Bright is a Red Barn?" in Controlling Color Photography (Niles, IL: Darkroom Techniques, 1994). "Precise Transparency Exposure Control: How Bright is a Red Barn?" Darkroom and Creative Camera Techniques, July/August 1990, 48-49. The Little Shenandoah – a social documentary project, exhibited at Grace Albrecht Gallery, Bluffton University, Bluffton, OH, Feb. – March 2007. ”Meaning of Life,” one-person exhibit, Sauder Visual Arts Center, Albecht Gallery, Bluffton College, OH, Sept. 1998. Two-person show and gallery talks, People's Place Gallery, Intercourse, PA Nov. 1993-Jan. 1994 "Gifts From the Earth: Stones and Ceramics." Lehman Gallery, Goshen, IN 1989. With Dick Lehman. “Parallel Lives exhibit,” Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia, PA, June 2004.(Also gallery talk) Fourth Area Artist's Association Juried Exhibit, Michigan City, IN 1989 (honorable mention). Photojournalism and documentary photography in at least 24 countries on assignment for Mennonite Central Committee and other agencies. Still photographer for feature movie The Radicals filmed in Switzerland and France. Concept, video interviews and still photos for video "You Chiefs are Peacemakers." Artist-in-residence grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to teach photography to lifers at Muncy and Graterford prisons, PA 1993-1994.