BLINK to display senior photographers’ portfolios
Courtesy Photo / Stacey Kasbow Stacey Kasbow, an artist featured in the Senior Thesis Exhibit, photographed historical and unigue place of the Upper Peninsula and Straits are of Michigan. Pictured here is “Arch Rock, Mackinac Island”: Established as a national park in 1875, Mackinac Island later became Michigan
Oct 27, 2011
More than a dozen Grand Valley State University photography students will showcase their work in the collaborative photographic experience BLINK.
The senior thesis exhibition, which opens Nov. 28 and will run through Dec. 10, will merge the artistic perspectives of 14 GVSU photographers, each conveying a different point of view.
Photographer and climber Lauren Hills used her camera to capture images of the experience she wanted to convey.
“I can usually be found on a rock wall,” she said. “I photographed what I knew and loved in an attempt to share with the audience my perspective on rock climbing.”
Hills said she wanted to created something the observer could view and immediately understand was a statement of her love for climbing. She said she uses photography as an expression while remaining conscious of the dangers of living a life behind a lens.
“There’s even times that I occasionally need to put down the camera and make a conscious effort to enjoy the moment,” she said. “Anything that sparks my interest I want to capture as a way to remember or show others what I saw.”
While Hills’ work is very unique to who she is as a person, featured photographer Kara VanderMolen’s work holds more serious and tragic undertones. Her images explore the effects of drunk driving on a family and the resilience of two individuals who still find moments of happiness.
“The inspiration for my images are the two girls I am photographing,” she said. “Their mother was killed in a drunk driving accident a few years ago, and their father is in jail.”
BLINK student photographer Nakia Bole focuses her pictures on the ambiguities of adolescence.
“The older I get the more I realize that there is a great desire to grow up faster,” Bole said. “I want to portray childlike behavior with an adult counterpart to convey the inevitable shift we are all faced with.”
Bole focuses her work more on girls than boys, saying the act of growing up is a more steadfast phenomenon with young girls because of their rate of growth.
“It’s not about liking or not liking a person’s work,” Bole said of critiquing fellow photographers. “It’s about whether that person got their point across.”
Hills said the best part of the program is the involvement of 14 separate artists, meaning the viewer can experience what 14 individuals see as important.
“It’s exciting to get to put up work showing what it is you want the audience to see, and then step back and get 13 other perspectives at the same time,” she said.
There will be an exhibit reception on Dec. 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center Gallery.
