• FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2022 (San Antonio, Texas)

REG CAMPBELL (1979 – 2020) (San Antonio, TX)
Septua
Presented by The San Antonio Center Of Photography together with Be The Match and the South Texas Blood And Tissue Center (STBTC), both subsidiaries of BioBridge Global.
The San Antonio Center Of Photography
724 South Alamo Street, Suite 3, San Antonio, TX 78205
info@thephotocenter.org | https://www.thephotocenter.org
Opening reception: Friday, September 2, 2022, 6 – 9 pm
Exhibit on display: September 2 – December 3, 2022
Viewing hours: Saturdays, 1 – 5 pm
Panel discussion: Saturday, September 17, 2022, 6 – 8 pm
Contact: Shannon Gowen, info@thephotocenter.org
Free and open to the public

Pop-Up Blood And Marrow Drives
Blood Drive: Saturday, September 10, 11 am – 3 pm, at The United Way parking lot next door to The Photo Center.
Marrow And Blood Typing Drive: Wednesday, October 26, 2022, 7 – 9 pm, at The Photo Center.
Blood Drive: Saturday, November 12, 2022, 11 am – 3 pm, at The United Way parking lot next door to The Photo Center.
The community is encouraged to donate blood for patients like Campbell, who was unable to receive a transfusion needed for his treatment during ongoing blood shortages. San Antonians aged 18-44 and in general good health can join the registry by completing a cheek swab kit. Kits can be picked up at any of the STBTC donor rooms or at monthly blood-drive pop-ups at The Photo Center during the exhibition duration. Participants can donate every 8 weeks.

Related Facebook Events
Septua exhibition FB event: https://fb.me/e/2akONOttG
September 10 Blood Drive FB event: https://fb.me/e/1yHfK3hqv
September 17 Septua Panel Discussion: https://fb.me/e/2DMQOXbrI
October 26 Blood Marrow And Typing FB event: https://fb.me/e/3hgv2Y9Pb
November 12 Blood Drive FB event: https://fb.me/e/eyeN5U8OV

•••

The San Antonio community continues to support former cancer patient and photographer, Reg Campbell (deceased), with an exhibition of his work that was originally slated for the Southwest School of Art’s Urschel Gallery in March of 2020; the same week the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition Septua chronicles Campbell’s journey with cancer through his photography.

Reg Campbell was in his late 30s when he found out he had leukemia. The photographer was ready to fight and determined to document the process. With his cameras in tow, he began photographing his hospital stays, chemo treatments, and, in between, precious time at home with his wife and young daughter. He called the series Septua, from the Latin word for seven, referring to his initial 7 weeks of chemotherapy and 7 months of intermittent hospital stays. After receiving a bone marrow transplant from his sister, he went into remission, but a year later the cancer came back and again a year after that, in November 2019. He died on May 15, 2020.

Throughout the last years of his life, he shot and shared striking and honest photos. He wrote when he first started the project that he wanted to show what leukemia was really like. “Cancer is an anyone disease, anyone from any walk of life can get it. No one is immune. I feel it is my job to show others that having leukemia, isn’t what the TV shows and movies say it is,” he wrote.

“Septua is an ongoing personal project I started in my first run with cancer in 2017,” said Campbell. “Finding a visual representation of leukemia is very hard. Septua gives future patients a visual idea of what they will be going through.”

As Campbell searched for a marrow donor to save his life, he continued to require blood transfusions as part of cancer treatments. He hoped his exhibition would raise awareness about joining the Be The Match Registry and donating blood for cancer patients like him. Be The Match is a national database that connects potential donors to patients in need of a stem cell or marrow transplant. African American patients with blood cancers, like Campbell, have a lower chance of finding a matching donor who could give them a stem cell or marrow transplant, their best hope for a cure. To receive a transplant, patients must find a donor who closely matches the genetic tissue typing of their immune system, which is inherited from a person’s ethnic background.

No matches were available when Campbell was first diagnosed in 2017, so he received a 50% match transplant from his sister. Campbell relapsed several times, before passing away in May of 2020. He was, unfortunately, unable to find a perfect match to beat his cancer and return home to his wife and daughter.

Campbell was known for shooting on film in a digital age, and he’d been commissioned to work for brands and media outlets including Nike, Target, Garden & Gun, and Texas Monthly. He also shot many weddings and moving personal projects. He was a popular figure in the local photography community, well-liked, and well respected.

100% of all exhibition proceeds from the sale of prints will go to Reg Campbell’s family.

Purchase prints from the exhibition at The Photo Center or through the MD Anderson Fund website: https://regcampbellphoto.pixieset.com/americathebold/