As other Grand Valley State University students began cracking open their books in early September, six senior photography students started snapping away on their cameras, filling memory cards full for artwork.

“The exhibition is something that the senior class puts on every semester,” said Jacklyn Wengstrom, a senior from the GVSU photography department. “We work on the project the whole semester individually, and then we put it all together for the show.”

Anthony Hart-Wilson, Megan Lendman, Danielle Lutz, Kelly Nash and Wengstrom will share the walls of the GVSU Art Gallery from Nov. 18 until Dec. 6 in “Framed Illumino.”

“We all came together with a bunch of ideas, but I think ‘Framed Illumino’ was something we were really drawn to,” Wengstrom said. “We were just drawn to light and photography. We put a lot of words with ‘illumino’ and ‘framed’ was the one we thought fit the best.”

The project has shed light onto different aspects that go into putting on an exhibition. The students not only had to take, edit and select the photographs they wanted to display, but they also organized the whole show, were in charge of advertising and had to work together to make an aesthetic space.

“It has been stressful but very enlightening onto what we will have to do in the future,” Wengstrom said. “A lot of things that we have been doing, personally, I think some of the students in the class didn’t know what went into creating exhibition. We also have been learning how to expand on our own work. A lot of us have not done a project for this amount of time.”

Some aspects of the project were easy for the students to complete, but they couldn’t underestimate the importance of time management as individuals and as a group, Hart-Wilson said.

Although the students chose to name the overall exhibit “Framed Illumino,” each individually selected the theme of their compilations.

“My project is focused on helping people contain an optimistic attitude during hard times and to just focus on happiness,” Wengstrom said. “My project is based in Grand Rapids, downtown in the city, and I was photographing whimsical activities.”

Wengstrom took on depicting happiness through her work whereas Hart-Wilson decided to take on a classic style of photography and modernize it.

“My photographs personally are about just modernizing the old traditional silhouette,” Hart-Wilson said. “You know the last time you had your silhouette taken back in pre-k or kindergarten, and I am just trying to modernize the whole traditional solid color silhouette with a more personal identity.”

As opening night approaches, each of the seniors are set to not only face attendees but also the realization that the end of their college career is near in sight.

“We may not realize what all of this means now, but years from now we will reflect and see how Grand Valley has prepared us,” Hart-Wilson said. “It is definitely bittersweet knowing this is your last big project, but it is also exciting because after this you’ll be able to start your life and start your career.”

Starting on Nov. 18, “Framed Illumino” will be open Monday thru Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Nov. 20, the exhibition will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with an open reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will also be a special viewing following the GVSU commencement on Dec. 6 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

For more about the project, visit gvsu.edu/artgallery/school-of-communications-fall-2014-photography-senior-thesis-77.htm.