We are pleased to announce that School of Design Associate Professor Dylan Vitone has been awarded a Berkman Faculty Development Grant for his Doha photography project.

The Berkman Faculty Development Fund is a small grants program, supported by the Berkman family in honor of Sybiel Altman Berkamn, A'31, and aims to support CMU faculty projects that may be hard to fund. The grant will help Dylan fund a return trip to Doha, Qatar, to continue the work he began in 2010 when he endeavored to capture this rapidly-growing city in a time of transition.

“I am interested in challenging the way photographs often perpetuate our ideas of a place or people. All too often, we pick up a magazine or view a show and find pictures that portray a culture just as we would imagine it. Photography all too often solidifies a stereotypical view of “others,” said Dylan. “In the Doha project, I've tried to push against this idea.”

Dylan's memorizing images illustrate the stark contrast between past and present that is readily on display throughout Doha as vibrant neighborhoods are razed to make way for yet-to-be occupied skyscrapers.

Dylan plans to utilize contacts and context gained from his first visit to further the project on his follow-up trip where he'll be hosted by a colleague from CMU's Qatar campus.

View the complete series of Doha images on Dylan's website: DylanVitone.com.