Student photographer's work on display at local café

Leah Cornwell waits to be seized by the beauty of an object, and then she takes a picture of it. \nHer keen eye for the sublime has landed her work in a local gallery for the second time this year. A collection of the IU senior's photographs, taken while she was studying in Italy, is on display at Tutto Bène wine café through Oct. 30.\n"I don't really look for the picture; I just wait until I get inspired and then I'll take the picture," Cornwell said. "I don't have anything set in my mind when I walk around with my camera. I didn't go to Italy with any plans in mind."\nCornwell, an Arbutus and Indiana Daily Student photographer, studied in Florence for more than a month during the summer of 2005 and traveled throughout the country for an additional week and a half. She took pictures the whole time, but said she never became too consumed with her own art so as to miss the Italian experience. \n"I think the most amazing thing about Italy was the culture and the history, and how easily you can get so immersed in it," she said. "The Italians have such an appreciation for their history and their art." \nImages of her journey now hang in the café gallery: a plump man with a violin in his plump hands, a tramp-like Chaplin smirking, boats in the blue marina waters at Cinque Terre, rows of Tuscan haybails.\nCornwell said the natural light in the Tuscan countryside was the best with which to work, and the pastoral surroundings there provided more artistic fodder than anywhere else in her travels. \n"Everywhere you walk, you can see characters on the street, you can buy anything on the street corner, photograph whatever you want to, but when you get into the Tuscan landscapes, those are the most inspiring," she said.\nCornwell first displayed her work at Tutto Bène last spring after the café's owners requested student work from the IU School of Fine Arts. Her initial show was a success, said Tutto Bène co-owner Marci Widen. When Cornwell approached her with the idea of a second show, Widen welcomed the idea.\n"I think she's extremely talented. She has a way with composition in photographs," Widen said. "Once I saw her work, I knew I wanted to have her involved with our gallery and our café."\nWiden said the two agreed to incorporate photographs of Cornwell's trip to Italy into the theme of the next show. Soon, local artists Susan Snyderand Rachel Greenhoe -- a potter and a painter, respectively -- were invited to jointly display their art at the current exhibit, which opened Tuesday. Widen said she believes their original work complements Cornwell's observant and often inviting photographs.\n"It's almost like she has a feeling for the right moments, and in these photographs, she's chosen some great moments that make you feel as though you're actually within them," Widen said. "She's young and gifted and she's going to go places."\nCornwell said she is pleased so far with the number of people who have come to view her work at Tutto Bène. She graduates in May and is unsure whether this will be her last exhibit in Bloomington, but she will not deny the possibility.\nThe affable native of Kinnelon, N.J., grew up just 35 miles west of New York City. She said she hopes to land again on the East Coast where she can ultimately work for herself as a self-supporting freelancer. \nHer photographs of Italy are on display at Tutto Bène through Oct. 30, and much of her work can be viewed online at www.leahcornwell.com.