July 24, 2007
Associate Professor of Fine Arts Belenna Lauto has an eye for a
good photograph. So good, in fact, that it’s the only one she uses.
Born without sight in one of her eyes, Lauto has cultivated her
other into a razor-sharp tool, which she uses to advance social
justice through the lens of a camera.
Among her many advocacy projects, Lauto, a professional
photographer, has spent the last 10 years documenting the residents
of MOMMA’s House, a Long Island organization dedicated to improving
the lives of young, homeless women with newborn babies. Many of the
residents have been thrown out of their homes because of unexpected
pregnancy; others have lived lives of poverty for a long time.
Lauto, who uses her camera to create intimate portraits of the
residents and their babies, plans to use the images for a photo
documentary, accompanied by excerpts of interviews she conducted.
Her hope is that the photographs will draw attention to the
importance of life and the vulnerability of human beings, while
imploring viewers not to judge those who are struggling.
Lauto, who calls the MOMMA’s House residents “courageous” and
their stories “poignant,” is unflinching when expressing her
opposition to abortion. Ever since her high schools days, when she
first observed some of her young classmates ostracized by their
parents after becoming pregnant, Lauto has been moved to support
women facing unexpected motherhood.
“We all make mistakes, but life is never a mistake,” says Lauto,
who has previously served on the Momma’s House board of directors.
“It’s important for girls to realize that.”
“Belenna epitomizes giving, ever mindful of the dignity of the
receiver,” says MOMMA’s House Director Pat O’Shea.
On occasion, Lauto brings students from her advanced photography
class to MOMMA’s House, inviting them to take pictures. The
professor, who keeps in touch with many former students, says that
St. John’s has always attracted a special kind of kid.
“I love working at St. John’s, and part of loving teaching is
loving the students,” she says. “I don’t know what St. John’s does
to attract them, but most of the students here are really good
kids, striving to do good, with social awareness. There is a
feeling of warmth on this campus.”
Perhaps the students are just following the professor’s example.
Senior August Johnson, a photography major from West Hempstead, NY,
who has attended a MOMMA’s House photo shoot, says Lauto fits right
in with the loving mothers that she photographs.
“Her nature is very warm and motherly, and it just spills over
to whatever she touches,” says Johnson, adding: “She always shows
genuine concern for her students, with an open ear and an open
door.”
“Poverty Really Does Exist”
Through her work at MOMMA’s House and other organizations, Lauto is
an apt poster child for the St. John’s Vincentian mission, which
calls on members of the University community to respect the dignity
of all people, including the poor and disenfranchised.
For Lauto, ever humble, its not about her; it’s about her
art.
“When you photograph a person, you’re basically keeping a little
fraction of time,” she explains. “It becomes an image of
contemplation, allowing you to go back, re-look at the photo and
see a person is an individual — with a face, an expression, a set
of issues, just like me. Re-looking at photos helps us consider the
dignity of human beings and helps us realize how much we have in
common with each other.”
She muses over what the world’s political landscape might look
like if more people realized what they had in common. “You can’t
shoot someone while thinking that he’s somebody’s son,” says Lauto,
who last year was named a Vincentian Fellow by the University’s
Vincentian Center for Church and Society.
In many ways, argues Lauto, images can be more powerful than
other forms of communication.
“We are visual people,” she notes. “We draw before we learn to
write. We respond to people’s faces before we learn to speak. We
love concerts because we have the added ability to see the
performer. If I see a photo of a child in a disrupted apartment,
who hasn’t bathed, dressed or eaten well for months, it sends a
wakeup call that poverty really does exist.”
A Very Special Professor
Aside from her ongoing documentary work on MOMMA’s House, Lauto is
co-coordinator of the New York City Very Special Arts Festival, an
annual event staged on the Queens campus that allows intellectually
disabled children from the borough’s public schools to show off
their art skills.
The festival is organized by the umbrella organization VSA arts, an international
non-profit group founded in 1974 by former Ambassador to Ireland
Jean Kennedy Smith and boasting millions of members from 60
countries. VSA arts is the artistic counterpart to the Special
Olympics (founded by Smith’s older sister, Eunice Kennedy
Shriver).
This year’s festival, which took place in May, attracting more
than 2,200 participants and adopting a theme of environmentalism,
featured art exhibits and workshops, music, dance and theater.
Lauto speaks about the event like she does with all her
projects: with a respect for human dignity.
“The festival empowers children with disabilities, who don’t
necessarily feel comfortable in the world of academics, by making
them feel comfortable in the world of the arts,” she says. “So,
people with speech impediments end up singing. Children who can’t
hear end up playing music. They can express themselves by making
art for everyone to see, and they end up feeling really good about
themselves.”
Last winter, in between semesters, Lauto traveled with a group
of students and Languages and Literature Professor Annalisa Sacca
to Southern Italy to engage in an immersive dual-course on culture
and language. Lauto’s students photo-documented some of the more
rustic, impoverished neighborhoods while touring through Italy’s
lower regions in a bus.
Even on the Mediterranean coast — a destination of glamour and
frivolity for so many people — Lauto finds a way to bring awareness
to the less fortunate.
“It wasn’t the Florence winery type of tour,” she admits with a
laugh.