Photography exhibit at CWU museum explores different faces of human resilience

For photographer R.J. Kern, it all started with the animals. Or, rather, it started with the relationships between humans and the domesticated animals surrounding us.

Each of us, human and animal, are shaped by these relationships — whether between farmer and livestock, consumer and product, or caretaker and beloved animal companion.

In The Unchosen Ones, an exhibit on display this winter at the CWU Museum of Culture and Environment (MCE), Kern focuses on the experiences of children and their animals as they compete for grand champion in a rural Minnesota county fair.

What binds these solemn and dignified portraits of children and animals together is that none of the subjects are grand champion winners. Instead, each pair photographed by Kern came in second, third, or fourth place; some did not place at all.  

“County fairs are a little like beauty pageants for animals … we all know what it feels like to not be chosen, whether for the prom, the basketball team, or a job. But what does it look like?” Kern asks.

His portraits demonstrate the resilience of rural children in the ways they tenderly and firmly hold the animals they care for. Kern writes, “… not being chosen for something can have a valuable upside: It can create empathy. Empathy connects people and forges bonds.”

Wanting to learn about the long-term lessons from life’s failures, Kern revisited these children four years later in order to learn from them. How had they moved on? What were their hopes for the future and what do their lives tell us about the changing rural landscape?

Kern learned that some had taken up new interests, some were working on their family farm, and some continued to have caring relationships with the animals seen in the earlier photographs.

Inspired by the lessons he learned from the rural children he photographed, Kern writes “Living on a farm requires a full-time commitment. It's not a petting zoo. There’s always work to be done—and lots of it. Rivers flood. Crops rot. Animals get sick.”

Yet the children — some of them adults four years later — remain dignified and undeterred: “I was heartened to learn of their ability to overcome adversity and rise to a challenge,” he said.

See more of his work at rjkern.com.

The Unchosen Ones is on display through March 9. The MCE will welcome Kern for a virtual talk on Thursday, January 25, at 4 p.m. This event will be held live on campus, though it will also be possible to attend via Zoom. Virtual attendees can register here.

The MCE, located in Dean Hall on the CWU campus, is open Wednesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To learn more about this and other exhibits, email museum@cwu.edu or call 509-963-2313.