Til Íslands This Summer
There’s still time to experience Til Íslands, an exhibition at CDS by artist and Duke MFAEDA alum Emma Geiger. Join us for the closing screening on September 10, 7 p.m., to meet the artist.
Created during a return journey to Iceland last summer, the project traces Geiger’s connection to the landscape her great-great-grandmother left behind in 1888. Through film, photography, and plant-based materials, Til Íslands explores ancestry, place, migration, and environmental change. As Geiger reflects, “It made me think about my own place in the timeline of life on Earth differently.”
Continuing Education Spotlight
One of our upcoming fall courses:
Self/Archive
Explore self-portraiture as a practice of identity, memory, embodiment, and personal storytelling in this six-week course led by Kennedi Carter. Through lectures, screenings, discussion, critique, and image-making exercises, you'll examine how artists have used photography and self-documentation to construct identity, preserve memory, and challenge dominant narratives.
Tuesdays, Sept. 8–Oct. 13, 2026, 6–8 p.m. ET
Remembering Robert Coles
Photographer Alex Harris reflects on the life and legacy of Robert Coles — the late child psychiatrist and pioneering documentarian.
Writing about their decades-long collaboration, Harris recalls Coles’s commitment to listening to children and his belief that meaningful storytelling begins with attention, care, and presence.
“Looking at these pictures again, I can imagine Coles’s lifetime of listening to and engaging with children, both the joys and the burdens of that life. He opened the doors, for me, to a life of the mind and eye.”
Coles and Harris, along with William Chafe and Iris Tillman Hill, cofounded CDS in 1989.
Program Spotlights
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
A premier showcase for nonfiction cinema, the 28th annual event runs April 16–19 and will screen dozens of groundbreaking documentaries.
Doc+ Summer Program
The newest summer “plus” program at Duke offers undergraduate students hands-on experience working on real-world documentary projects.
Literacy Through Photography
LTP continues its decades-long work with Durham Public Schools, connecting picture-making with writing and critical thinking.
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