New show offers chance to see Monroe changes
Knoxie le’Roux and Stephane Calabrese are setting up the photographer’s art show for Thursday’s opening night. Stephen Milligan | The Tribune
Update: This exhibition runs until March 31 and now contains many thoughts, and wishes, for the future of Monroe, from residents who have already attended. Those who have not yet attended have until then to participate. The comments from attendees will be collated and shared with City of Monroe officials.
Click here for hours of operation for the next month. https://www.wishyouwerehere.film
Stephanie Calabrese took a walk down memory lane for her new photography show to demonstrate what even a few years can mean in a place like Walton County.
“I selected 24 images of Monroe I photographed and re-shot all of them 10 years later,” Calabrese said. “Looking at these images 10 years ago in the same spots really served to highlight all the changes.”
It’s one of the primary portions of her new show, an “experiential exhibit” called “Wish You Were Here.”
The art show will take over the opening gallery space of The Eulalia building in downtown Monroe for the next three months as Calabrese uses it to give a view of what Monroe has been and what it could be.
“It’s a look at the past and present, and imagining the future of Monroe,” Calabrese said of her show.
“It’s kind of a culmination of the documentary work I’ve been doing over the last 10 years.”
Calabrese, a Monroe resident who has shot the city before for a photography exhibit and art book, has made her chosen hometown a focus in her work for years now.
Following her photographs of Monroe, she then made a documentary film about the town and its reckoning with the legacy of Moore’s Ford.
Now, though, her new focus is her latest exhibit, which came about almost on accident.
“Chad Draper said he had the space and did I have anything I would like to show here,” Calabrese said. “It just hit me I should study the present of Monroe like I had the past.”
She selected pictures she’d previously shot for her last exploration of Monroe and took photos in the same places to demonstrate the changes in the past decade.
She also selected older photos of the city, as well as maps and other signifiers of old Monore, to give a look at the city’s history.
And she shot a short film, a 13-minute video in which she interviews people from around the city about Monroe and what it means to them and what it could be in the future.
“It tells the story of our town through the voices of our residents,” Calabrese said. “It remixes the past with the present.”
Calabrese also wants to give visitors to the exhibit a chance to be a part of its history.
One wall of the space will be covered in postcards, empty except for three questions about Monroe, which visitors can fill out to give a current snapshot of what residents think about their town today.
Calabrese said once the show wraps up at the end of March, she will present the cards to the city of Monroe as a symbol of its ongoing history and legacy.
“It’s a gift to the community,” Calabrese said.
Calabrese is currently setting up the exhibit space with the help of her niece, Knoxie le’Roux, but hopes to have it all ready for opening night, which will run from 6-9 p.m. in The Eulalia building, located at 127 N. Broad St., Monroe.
She has high hopes of what the event can mean to residents as they reflect on Monroe and what it both has been and could be in the future.
“We’re going to turn the whole place into an experience,” Calabrese said.
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