On Thursday, March 8th there was an event at the 25CPW Gallery in New York that celebrated photography and the power of photography to inform and motivate people. The event was an exhibition combined with both a silent and active auction to raise funds to benefit the Man Up Campaign. There were also prints for sale from the NURU Project, an organization that sells prints to benefit non-profit causes, that was there to support Man Up. Man Up was founded four years ago by former journalist Jimmie Briggs with a mission to motivate youth to prevent violence against women.

The event, titled Through our lens was curated by Whitney Johnson, of the New Yorker, Bess Greenberg, the founding Director of 25CPW Gallery, and Yukiko Yamagata, with the Open Society Institute. The photographers who took part included, Larry Fink, Susan Meiselas, Donna Ferrato, Ashley Gilbertson, Carrie Mae Weems, and Platon. The Gallery was packed with a large, diverse, enthusiastic crowd that showed their support for the event with their bidding on the photographs.

Bob McNeely