We are very excited to announce that Vox Nova has a new contributor! Gerald L. Campbell now joins us. He runs a personal blog, First Things First, and works tirelessly in social and humanitarian projects. Here’s a little background:
Gerald L. Campbell was a senior staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1976 to 1985, the Director of Policy and Research for the National Security Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1980, the Senior Advisor to the Director of the United States Information Agency from 1985 to 1990, and the Special Assistant to the Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs, at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1992 to 1993.
From 1997 to 2001, Campbell was the Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of Health for the State of Texas. Until recently, he was President and a member of the Board of Directors of The Impact Group, Inc., a non-profit education foundation located in Washington, D.C. and Tyson’s Corner, Virginia.
In June 1990, Campbell began to inquire into the nature, root cause, and the spiritual dynamics of socially dysfunctional behaviors. He spent nearly five years exploring the streets of Washington, D.C., associating with and befriending the homeless, violent youth, and substance abusers.
With camera and tape recorder in hand, he took black and white photographic images — and recorded the personal stories — of many of these individuals. He also recorded the stories of many teenagers who had been incarcerated for capital crimes.
A senior member of President Reagan’s Domestic Policy Council said of Campbell’s work: “He has captured the image and voice of the homeless — their own voices — in ways that are instructive to us all. On film and note pad he has recorded what they confided to him. Campbell finds in their stories and existence a message for the nation, a message about the importance of bonding in simple humanity. He is their camera, not their filter; he is ‘Boswell'” to their ‘Samuel Johnson.'”
Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) has written about his efforts: “Your work with and on behalf of the homeless in Washington, D.C. is a model that should be emulated across the country. The isolation and the loneliness felt by the destitute, the poor, and the hungry is the same isolation felt by virtually every American at some point in their lives.”
A member of the Arts Education Advisory Panel of the Washington, D.C. Council on the Arts and Humanities said: “The artistic merit of Gerald Campbell’s photographs are unparalleled in quality. The technical skill is flawless and the subject matter has the emotional substance that competes with the subject matter of Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Potato Eaters.”
The Curator of the Washington Center for Photography said: “I am stunned by the intensity and compassion expressed in your body of work. It has been a long time since I have seen portraits which combine spiritual presence and strength with technical accomplishment. I see what Eugene Smith was searching for within your images: the ability to see past skin and culture and see the true individual within.”
Gerald L. Campbell was educated at Gonzaga University (Philosophy), St. Louis University (Philosophy), Georgetown University (Philosophy), and the Catholic University of America (International Relations).
Welcome, Gerald!
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