Photo documentary captures diverse communities in Columbia Pike
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this is certainly true when it comes to the photographers of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project. CPDC is an exhibition featuring five photographers’ work over the course of about seven years as they captured the essence of Columbia Pike, which is “one of the world’s most culturally varied and colorful communities.” The Pike has become known to be the home of immigrants from all across the globe, and even old residents have a variety of backgrounds as well.
CPDC started as a discussion of admiration for their community over a Thai dinner one evening near Columbia Pike. Three individuals—Todd and Paula Endo and Lloyd Wolf—decided to commit themselves to documenting this growth in diversity.
“It was the great diversity that surrounded us while living and volunteering in our new home community of Columbia Heights West. Our love [for] the diversity and vitality we experienced along the Pike and its neighborhood led to us committing ourselves to start what would become the Columbia Pike Documentary Project,” says cofounder Paula Endo.
“This was just exploring what was going on in the Pike,” says founder and chief photographer Lloyd Wolf. “[Columbia Pike] is very diverse. What was going on in the Pike was representative of a regional trend.”
In 2006, Wolf and Paula Endo began their journey of gathering a few grants, like the Discretionary Grant and a grant from the VA Foundation for the Humanities, and the team that was needed to make CPDC a reality. They began by digging into the origin of the Pike and soon decided that the Pike’s history and growth in diversity could not be conveyed through just interviews and words on paper, but rather through photography.
“The visual impact of the photographs would in and of themselves tell a compelling story of the changes happening on the Pike, so the chief emphasis shifted to photography,” Paula Endo says.
As the dream grew, so did the team. Paula Endo brought two students who were part of an afterschool program she taught called the Columbia Heights Teen Photo Project: Duy Tran and Xang Mimi Ho. Lloyd brought in Aleksandra Lagueva, one of his former interns.
Together these five photographers have photographed the growth and wonderful diversity of today’s Columbia Pike. This past August, Wolf and his team were able to create a book titled “Living Diversity,” which Wolf hopes will soon be used as an educational tool. “I’m hoping to have the book used in education [as] a teacher’s resource. [I hope to] get people to talk about diversity and immigration. Art can be used in a way to start a conversation to get people to pay attention,” Wolf says.
The CPDC will be on display at the Arlington Mill Community Center now through Thanksgiving with the hope of a possible extension. To learn more about the project and “Living Diversity,” visit the project’s website.
Arlington Mill Community Center: 909 S. Dinwiddie St., Arlington
Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 3:30-6:30 p.m.
Thursdays: 3:30-6:30 p.m.
Saturdays: 2-4 p.m.
