by Carol Bales, Duke Center for Documentary Studies (CDS)
“Creation and expression has always been a big part of my life,” says Evan Nicole Bell, an award-winning artist and musician.
As an undergraduate at Duke, Bell found a home for her passions at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), where she ultimately designed her own major through Program II: Documenting Justice: The Role of Photographic Narratives in Activism. One particular documentary photography course she took during her first year — American Communities — profoundly shaped both her time at Duke and her artistic voice.
“It was a very life-changing class,” she says. “Even though I don’t take photos with a camera anymore, I’m still a documentarian — with my words, with chords. I’m still telling stories.”
