Walking with Grace by Sandra Wong Geroux @ Larchmont Public library

The Larchmont Public Library presents “Walking with Grace”, an exhibit of photography by Sandra Wong Geroux, in the Library’s Oresman Gallery from January 3, through January 30, 2012. The exhibit is free and open to everyone during normal library hours. There will be a reception for Ms. Geroux on Saturday, January 7, from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in the Oresman Gallery. The reception is also free and everyone is welcome.

 When a magnitude-7.0 earthquake slammed into Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 12, 2010, killing 300,000 people and injuring another 300,000, many of those hurt were trapped under rubble and needed emergency amputations. Nine months later, Larchmont photographer Sandra Wong Geroux visited Haiti to photograph an orphanage and school in Lamardelle east of Port-au-Prince that existed before the disaster and was inundated with children traumatized by the disaster. On the school's land, a tent clinic was rising.

 Joe Mahon, of Salt Lake City, Utah, a designer of prosthetic limbs, was setting up the Haitian Amputee Mothers' Alliance (HAMA). Mahon brought tools and materials from Utah for artificial arms and legs, found a commercial oven from the Dominican Republic to bake the plastic and began getting women – literally – back on their feet. Joe, his family (his father works with Doctors Without Borders) and a local Haitian family partnered on the project.  Helping mothers supported both families and communities.

Geroux found a unique kind of community at the HAMA tents and began to photograph HAMA efforts. Mahon and HAMA not only provided the limbs, but trained patients to use them and care for them. In addition, counseling and small-business microloans were available. "Toward the end of my trip, I held a slideshow of the pictures from the HAMA camp. Some of the women had never seen photographs of themselves. They were laughing and hooting as the photos were show and suddenly one woman shouts out in clear English, 'I feel beautiful!'" Geroux said.

 Larchmont, N.Y.-based Sandra Geroux photographs children, sports, portraits and "stories about people" such as the lives of Hawaiian plantation workers and Haitian earthquake victims. She has worked as a studio manager for documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark in New York City, whom she cites as a major influence. Born and raised in Honolulu, she has lived in San Francisco, London and Chicago.

 In San Francisco, she worked on radio documentaries, photographing subjects, writing grants and doing research. Among the documentaries, "Lost and Found Sound " won a Peabody Award and a Webby award. She earned a B.A. in photojournalism and international relations from the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Geroux is married with one son.   

For more information about the exhibit, call the library at (914) 834-2281 or visit the library online at www.larchmontlibrary.org. Please call or visit the library online for exhibit hours.