Positive Exposure: Internationally Renowned Photographer Focuses on the Beauty of Differences

Rick Guidotti, an award-winning former fashion photographer who now focuses his work on genetics, mental health, and human rights, will present the Henry Howe Chan Memorial Lecture in Bioethics at the Medical College of Wisconsin on Thursday, April 3 at 5:30 p.m.

Guidotti spent years shooting high fashion editorial spreads for magazines such as Elle and GQ, until a chance encounter with a young woman with albinism. He quit his job with the fashion industry and founded the nonprofit organization Positive Exposure, an arts, education and advocacy organization that utilizes the visual arts to impact the fields of genetics, mental health and human rights.

Guidotti’s photographic exhibition, “Positive Exposure: The Spirit of Difference,” has been featured at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and has been featured in numerous national media. His photographs will be on display starting March 31 at MCW.

The exhibit and lecture are timed to coincide with the MCW Muses celebration, a daylong celebration of medicine and humanities at the medical school in which faculty, residents and students display their artwork or other handiwork, their poetry and prose, and perform musical selections.

The Henry Howe Chan Memorial Lecture was endowed by Carlyle Chan, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine, bioethics and medical humanities at MCW; in honor of his father, who had a deep interest in bioethics.

“This particular exhibit celebrates the richness and beauty of human diversity, which is profoundly important to our students and everyone who spends time with patients, and even with our own colleagues,” said Dr. Chan. “We welcome the public to come view Rich Guidotti’s work and stay for the lecture, and engage in discussion about viewing people, not through the lens of their disease, but as a human being with his or her own challenges.”

MCW Muses is an annual event of the MCW Medical Humanities Program and is co-sponsored by the MCW Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and the Society of Teaching Scholars.

The photographic display and lecture are open to media and to the general public. The Medical College of Wisconsin is located at 8701 Watertown Plank Rd. in Wauwatosa. Visitor parking is located across 87th street from the main entrance of the campus.