i am not a stranger: portraits by séan alonzo harris

As we move through the streets of Waterville, there are both familiar and unfamiliar faces.

But do we really see them? Do we really know our neighbors and fellow citizens?

—Séan Alonzo Harris

Like many cities in the United States, Waterville has welcomed new residents in recent years, including more people of color and new Mainers. Presented by Waterville Creates! (WC!) in partnership with the Colby Museum, I Am Not a Stranger: Portraits by Séan Alonzo Harris is a photographic project composed of individual portraits of community members who live and work in Waterville. The exhibition will capture the faces of those who move among us each day, bearing witness to some of the unseen members of our community. Using a combination of photographic portraits and personal narratives, the project will create channels for telling untold stories, capture personal histories, and build bridges across difference.

Waterville Creates! and the Colby Museum will present the full suite of approximately fifty works. In addition, selections from the series will appear throughout the city and will be on view at the Waterville Public Library, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville Opera House, and Common Street Arts as well as public and private institutions and local businesses.

I Am Not a Stranger: Portraits by Séan Alonzo Harris is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.