New Exhibit Features Work by Documentary Photography Students
The following description is by David Wharton, who teaches documentary photography at the Center. The Gammill Gallery in Barnard Observatory is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday – Friday.
New GAMMILL GALLERY Exhibit Features Work by Documentary Photography Students: NORTH MISSISSIPPI: A VISUAL INQUIRY
The photographs in this exhibit are from last spring’s Southern Studies seminar in documentary photography. The students’ semester-long assignment was to construct a visual inquiry of north Mississippi, paying special attention to comparing some of the area’s small communities to bustling, college-town Oxford. In one sense, their task was to compile a photographic catalog of the region that might be of use to future scholars. The students were encouraged to approach north Mississippi as 1) a physical place; 2) a cultural space reflecting local life and values; and 3) a site of human activity. It was also suggested that they value the ordinary by concentrating on making pictures of everyday life rather than focusing primarily on the unusual.
There were five students in the class: Nadia Alexis, Rebecca DeLuna, Anne Carter Stowe, Kristin Teston, and Jimmy Thomas. Each contributed a sizable number of photographs to the exhibition as well as compiling a books of photographs accompanied by explanatory text.
