Cathleen Campbell

Project: Creating an interactive new series that honors Harlem's history through combining photos, short films and texts that pay tribute to the past, while engaging with the present and looking towards the future. 

Cathleen Campbell is a Yale University graduate and a longtime Harlem resident who has photographed Harlem for decades. She worked primarily as an independent filmmaker, assisting on numerous productions, before writing and directing her own short films, including “Langston Hughes’ NO CRYSTAL STAIR.” Televised nationwide, her films also played in prestigious festivals. She’s currently completing a documentary about four generations in a Harlem family.

As a Bundles Scholar, she will produce short films about Harlem heroes and cultural landmarks, making these films available via QR codes on-site across different Harlem locations. These short films will be shared on a website with an interactive map. Armchair tourists can seek information virtually while in-person visitors can find previously unmarked Harlem cultural landmarks. Campbell will shoot photographic portraits of current residents living in these historical and cultural landmarks, in the spirit of extending, expanding, and celebrating the phenomenal, ongoing legacies of Harlem.

Campbell’s work has been featured across different media platforms, including a Spectrum NY-1 News story feature and numerous galleries. In addition to exhibiting her photographs, she began curating exhibitions earlier this year.