T
HE EYES OF THE WORLD ARE
ON THE STREETS OF WILSON. With the installation of 100 large-scale
photographs on office buildings and store-fronts
for the sixth edition of the Eyes on Main
Street photo festival, historic downtown has
transitioned into an outdoor art gallery. The nearly 200-day
event runs from Oct. 31, 2020 to May 16, 2021. It runs for
about a mile and encompasses nine city blocks, including
Barnes Street, Tarboro Street, Goldsboro Street, Lodge Street
and Nash Street. The festival showcases the work of leading
photographers and emerging artists from 48 countries world-wide.
An equal number of men and women are featured.
Eyes on Main Street, first launched six years ago, draws
inspiration from the idea that art can bridge the gap
between cultures, show the interplay between manmade
creations and natural phenomena, and enhance the lives of
a city’s residents. The theme of the festival is Main Street:
A Crossroad of Cultures.
The residency program hosts photographers from around
the world. They spend a month in Wilson, capturing images
of the city from a wide array of viewpoints, and exhibit the
resulting work each year during the festival.
The youth photography program introduces a new gener-ation
of photographers to the joy of creating and displaying
images. The youth exhibit showcases the work of students
from Wilson and China, the result of a collaborative effort
with the Pingyao International Photography Festival in
September 2019.
“You can actually see the world in Wilson without boarding
a plane, since we have photos from 48 countries,” says Jérôme
De Perlinghi, event founder and artistic director. “Everyone
will find something interesting to enjoy with this. One of the
largest photos is around 145 inches wide, so you can really get
the feeling of stepping inside the work.”
The organization also operates two indoor galleries,
EOMS Goldsboro Gallery at 126-128 Goldsboro Street,
and EOMS Residency Gallery at 231 Nash Street East. The
galleries are open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
from noon to 4 p.m. and on Fridays from noon to 6 p.m.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Amira Al-Sharif • LOCATION Al Borigha, Yemen
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WBM december 2020