Center for Documentary Studies

Having been created in 1989 through an endowment from the Lyndhurst Foundation,[1][2] the organization’s founders were Robert Coles, William Chafe, Alex Harris, and Iris Tillman Hill.

[3] That structure and a large addition house the main activities of CDS on the edge of Duke University’s campus in Durham, North Carolina.

The Center for Documentary Studies has had four directors since its founding: Iris Tillman Hill (1990–98), Tom Rankin (1998–2013),[4][5] Wesley Hogan (2013–2021),[6] and Opeyemi Olukemi (2021–present).

[10] Among the organization’s stated goals is promoting documentary work that fosters respect among individuals, breaks down barriers to understanding, and illuminates social injustices.

CDS offers continuing education courses in the documentary arts through onsite and online classes, summer intensives, and weekend workshops.

Notable recent winners of the Julia Day Harper Award include Rebekah Fergusson and David Delaney Mayer.

[27] The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual four-day event in Durham, North Carolina dedicated to the exhibition of nonfiction cinema.

[33] Center for Documentary Studies audio director John Biewen launched the organization’s Scene on Radio podcast in 2015 with a stated goal of exploring American society.

[40] The LTP teaching methodology challenges students to explore their world using photography and to use the images as a stimulus for verbal and written expression.

[44][45] Emerging artists (18–24) and post-MFA fellows from underrepresented groups have long term, living-wage residencies to work on developing their skills and projects.

The gateway was made possible by the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, including a series of critical oral histories with civil rights veterans, historians, and others on the Black Power movement.

Several of CDS’s previous projects and initiatives include the Behind the Veil oral history project that documented African American life in the Jim Crow South;[51][52] the Jazz Loft Project based on photographs and tapes made by W. Eugene Smith,[53][54] which resulted in a book,[55] a radio series with WNYC,[56] and a national touring exhibition;[57] and Indivisible: Stories of American Community, a national photography and audio initiative that included the work of photographers Dawoud Bey, Bill Burke, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Lucy Capehart, Lynn Davis, Terry Evans, Lauren Greenfield, Joan Liftin, Reagan Louie, Danny Lyon, Sylvia Plachy, and Eli Reed and resulted in a book and national touring exhibition.