Behind the Visible Spectrum: Curating Photographs of Young Autistic People

A visiting artist, Duke MFA|EDA student, and Duke professor share how a popular exhibition came together.

“My son Graham was diagnosed at age seven with Asperger’s, but I think we should have known when he was a lot younger,” says Mary Berridge, a photographer based in Chapel Hill, NC. “If we had known, we could have made his and our lives so much better from an earlier age.”

Berridge believes Graham’s diagnosis was delayed because of the stigma that still surrounds autism. “Even though he had several traits of autism, he didn’t check every single box,” she says. Instead, doctors and others suggested he was just anxious, or quirky. “People avoid talking about autism and that further perpetuates misinformation and the stereotypes.”

Berridge’s experience pushed her to create portraits of her son and other young people on the autism spectrum. “It was my way of trying to get people to talk about autism, learn about autism and understand that it doesn’t always look like the stereotype,” she says. 

Twenty of Mary Berridge’s photographs are included in the exhibition, “Visible Spectrum: Portraits from the World of Autism,” at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS). The show, curated by Duke students, closes this Friday, February 28. 

This exhibition is the first comprehensive showing of this body of work. “The book came out during the pandemic, which was a really bad time for galleries. Having the photographs now displayed at CDS is really meaningful to me,” says Berridge, who also won a grant from CDS in the ’90s for her work on women living with HIV. 

Hands-On 

The exhibition was curated by Katelyn Lester, a Duke graduate student pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts, graduate students Warren Goff and Xueyan Han, and undergraduate students Emily Dieu and Karen Xu while they were taking Duke’s “Photo Fever: Curating Photography Exhibitions” course in Fall 2025.

Taught by Christopher Sims, a Duke professor and director of CDS, the project-based, hands-on course explored ways artists, journalists and others use photography to shape public perceptions of social issues. Students learned how to cull large bodies of work into exhibition formats, write interpretive texts, mock up gallery walls and more.

“Most of the classes were not held in a classroom,” says Sims. “Instead, we used the CDS gallery as a classroom and students learned about curation in real time as we put together exhibitions on site, from selecting prints, painting the gallery walls, and even cooking food for the opening reception.” 

Students could choose to curate student work or team up with an established photographer. “Since I’m a photographer and have had the opportunity to have my own shows at Duke and CDS, I was really excited to focus on curating someone else’s photographs,” Lester says. “And I was really interested in the way Mary framed portraiture.” 

Berridge’s portraits are not just pretty pictures. The compositional details in the frame seem intentional, so the viewer gets a sense of how the subjects see the world and communicate.

The student curators worked closely with Berridge to present her work in a way that was both impactful and educational. Berridge came to several of their classes and worked with them on framing, sequencing, hanging and lighting the show. 

“It was great that we got to spend so much time with Mary and learn so much from her,” says Lester. “We got to hear from her about images she felt strongly about having in the show, and even on certain walls or areas in the gallery.”

For Berridge, the experience was different than working with professional curators on her past shows. “It was a real group endeavor. They were very open to my ideas. It took time to figure out how to hang the pictures, in what sequence, and whether to have them be different sizes or if they should all just be the same size. We had a budget, which is another thing that the students learned is very important,” says Berridge. Because of budget constraints, they printed the photographs all the same size, for standard-sized frames, so CDS could reuse the frames for future exhibitions. 

Berridge says the students also found out that some parts of curating a show is not exactly glamorous. “Actually hanging a show is challenging, and I think they worked well as a team to get that done. They had some nice ideas about making the show autism-friendly, which I thought was great.”

It was the students’ idea to make a quiet space or “calm down corner” for families with autistic members to feel welcoming, with comfortable chairs, a table, fidget spinners, warm lighting and a copy of Berridge’s book. 

Making Impact 

“The students were involved in every single aspect of curating the show and also the outreach and the opening,” says Sims, “from using hammers and electric screwdrivers to contacting Duke professors with a connection to autism to invite them to come. It was a collaborative team effort.”

About 250 people came on opening night, including some subjects in Berridge’s photographs. “Mia, who is on the cover of the book and featured on the wall outside of the gallery, was at the opening, and it was a joy to see that,” says Sims. “She was enamored to be the center of attention. She took photos in front of Mary’s portraits of her, and as Mary spoke about her portraits she interjected to thank her. It was such an authentic moment to hear from someone how important the work was. This was more than just an exhibition; it was a space for connection, understanding and a chance for individuals to see themselves reflected in a meaningful way.”

“I was most proud to see the whole thing come together, the text up on the walls and the really large room that we had inhabited for well over a month completely filled with people,” says Lester. 

As the exhibition draws to a close, the collaboration between Berridge, the students and CDS has made a lasting impression. For Lester, the experience has ignited a passion for curating. “I’d love to do more curating in the future,” Lester says. “I’m working on curating my own thesis show now and helping other students to curate their shows.” 

For the visitors, the exhibition created a space for reflection and dialogue about autism and inclusion. “I wanted to raise awareness of autism. I think that there are way more people who are autistic than realize it, and it would make those people’s lives and their families’ lives so much better if they knew. It would explain their challenges, and help point them in a direction of figuring out what they can do to create more structure in their lives and lessen the anxiety that comes along with autism,” says Berridge.

The local community can see Lester’s thesis show at CDS from March 17-April 9.