Boys Will Be Men | Bill Bamberger Gallery Exhibit
Date: Thu, Jan 29, 2026
Time: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Venue: Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill
Price: Free
Category: Arts
Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men presents introspective portraits by distinguished Durham-based photographer Bill Bamberger (born 1956) of male-identifying high school students. These images, accompanied by an audio program in which the students reflect on the expectations and pressures they experience in their daily lives, explore the transition from childhood to adulthood for contemporary youth. Started in 1984 at the Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, the Boys Will Be Men series continued in 2000 when Bamberger served as artist-in-residence at Flint Central High School in Michigan. In 2023, the Ackland commissioned Bamberger to bring the project to the Durham School of the Arts (DSA), where he worked with students on campus for two years to organize, interview, and photograph interested students, interacting with them both in their classrooms and in extracurricular activities. Bill Bamberger: Boys Will Be Men presents a selection of the many individuals photographed, in addition to an audio program of collected personal reflections and documentation of the project’s presence in students’ lives on the DSA campus. This exhibition is made possible by support from the late Barbara C. Newborg, M.D. and Karen and Chuck Lovelace. Image credit: Bill Bamberger, American, born 1956, Jorden, 2023, pigment inkjet print