How does seeing entail social responsibility? Is sight power-laden, political? What role does blindness play in determining what we take to be true? In her photography project, “Depleted Selves,” Cheryl Meeker explored these questions by tracing the boundaries between artwork, social consciousness, and the changing role of journalism in a networked society. The project was inspired by the U.S. military’s use of munitions made with depleted uranium, and their purported contribution to birth-defects in Iraq, including some children born without eyes. Meeker gathered a library of hotly-contested literature on the use and effects of depleted uranium, which provoked the questions: what we can confidently take to be true in this internet age, how much do we know about our military’s activities, and what information has been withheld? She shared this information primarily with friends and other visual artists, for whom knowledge is important and the prospect of having no eyes is unthinkable. And she asked them to work with her to stage a series of “anti-portraits,” in which their eyes and/or faces are covered and their identities are obscured. The resulting images are both haunting and humorous. They speak directly to feelings of shame, as if their subjects are turning away from an undeniable truth, blinding themselves to realities in which we find ourselves implicated. But they also playfully explore anonymity, collaboration, and the construction of masks. And, at the show, audience members were invited to consider the literature, participate in the discussion, and contribute images of their own.