#wnuk

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This week I’m working to put together a gallery show of work by Quinn Community Center students. The QCC serves families living in Maywood, Bellwood, Melrose Park, and the surrounding area. For the past year I’ve been lucky to teach a great group of dedicated young women through photography classes and workshops held at the QCC.

This summer we visited a community garden in Maywood and the Swap O Rama in Melrose Park, we celebrated one of their quinceañeras with friends and family, and we shot inside the community boxing ring of former professional boxer Rocky DiFazio. 

Featured above is just a taste of the work made by Sherlyn Gomez, 13 (photos #1-2), Angie Beltran, 13 (photo #3), and Sydney Idunate, 14 (photo #4).

Come support these students and see their exhibit at the Quinn Community Center: 1845 S. 9th Ave., Maywood, IL. 60153.

See you there! :)

Monika Wnuk

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A celebratory atmosphere at St. Eulalia Parish in Maywood, Ill., where 16 children received their first communion and two were baptized on Sunday, May 3, 2015.

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Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending the Clinton Global Initiative University event in Miami as a mentor to students.

This year’s list of scheduled speakers was packed with inspiring women. Among them were Wanjira Mathai, Director for Women’s Entrepreneurship in Renewables (wPOWER), who talked about transforming the lives of Kenyan women through access to electricity and Brittany Wenger, Founder of Cloud4Cancer, who developed an app that can detect early stages of breast cancer with 99.1% sensitivity.

The power of women and girls was evident throughout the event, but especially so when Hillary Clinton hit the stage with her daughter, Chelsea, to launch their No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project. This new initiative aims to break down the barriers that keep women from equal access, representation, and compensation in communities around the world.

Hearing Hillary and Chelsea talk about women and girls hit home.

“We must ensure that women and girls are visible, accounted for, and empowered. We can’t do it without you.”

Those words reaffirmed what When We Blink has sought to do for the last six months – share stories that grow awareness of, and support for, the power of women and girls.

The weekend concluded with a day of service in Liberty City, a neighborhood in Miami where the residents’ median annual income is around $18,000. Walking around and documenting the efforts of everyone who planted gardens, painted basketball courts and built community spaces, I couldn’t help but stop at the scene in the second photo – a dozen or so women and girls working together to leave a community better than when they arrived. That, right there, is the power of women and girls. - Monika Wnuk

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Behind the scenes shot from my lighting class at the Chicago Photography Center. Achieving the hair light.

[wolkendecken]

Und die Liebe ist, wie wenn man seinen nackten Arm in Teichwasser schwimmen lässt, mit Tang zwischen den Fingern; wie die Qual, vor der der trunkene Baum knarzend zu singen anhebt, auf dem der wilde Wind reitet; wie ein schlürfendes Ersaufen im Wein an einem heißen Tag.

Oliver Wnuk

[monikawnuk]

Uncle Marek is a 25-year-old trapped in a let’s-not-talk-about-age-year-old’s body, which is why he prefers that I scrap the uncle and just call him Marek. The photos he made in Poland in the 70s filled galleries.

He stopped making them a decade ago when he moved to Chicago to support his family, but he’ll tell you that he hasn’t given up his zycie artystyczne, or artistic lifestyle.  You better have a really good reason if you aren't going to a gallery show with him next weekend.

I love having him around to talk me through making photos that tell stories. In this one, we were doing just that while ringing in the New Year at Alice's Lounge.

I’m Monika Wnuk and making photos takes me out of my comfort zone in a way that I can’t believe I ever lived without.