BFA photography show expresses media neglect

The old Wal-Mart building off State Road 45 has been sitting empty for two years, but last Sunday, a corner of its overgrown parking lot was filled with professional lighting equipment, suitcases and shivering Bachelor of Fine Arts photography students.

As the sun lowered in the sky, they transformed this patch of pavement into a set for the second shoot of the day and the last shoot of many for their upcoming show, “No Man is an Island.”

This annual BFA show, opening at the Art Hospital, 102 E. Allen St., on Friday, will exhibit the work of the 13 students in the BFA Photography Honors Program.
The concept for Friday’s show began with the simple idea of propaganda posters but evolved into the idea of using strong images to raise important issues mainstream media often neglect to cover, said BFA student Ellie Schreiner.

As the show’s title suggests, each of the stories involves the way in which man interacts with his environment. Some things, such as the old Wal-Mart building of Sunday’s shoot, can exist without affecting the world outside a cement plot. But the BFA students hope to show, as poet John Donne once wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself.”

Schreiner’s shoot, for example, depicted a classroom of prematurely developed girls, affected by the growth hormones sometimes used by beef and dairy farmers to increase production, she said.

Though all the students directed their own shoots, everyone worked together on each project – whether working with the lighting and helping with set design or acting as extras and stuffing their bras as some BFA girls did for Schreiner’s shoot.

“Hopefully it will ignite people to better understand how they interact with the world in which they live,” said BFA student Caroline LeFevre.

Conner Green’s Wal-Mart shoot focuses on the issue of transnational corporations. Once the equipment was in place and the frame was set, everyone grabbed luggage from the pile and walked through the frame, looking weary and downtrodden as Green captured it with his camera.

Collaborating on the shoots and switching roles with each new set allowed them all to learn every aspect of the process, students said.

“It’s like a big group of friends working together,” said BFA student Zach Kowalczyk as he prepared for the next shot, bag in hand.

“It’s called a family,” said BFA student Joseph Campbell.

And it’s a family of 13 strong individuals, said fine arts professor and BFA Director James Nakagawa. Their individual personalities, at first, made it challenging for the group to work together in the way they were able to by the last shoot, Nakagawa said.

In addition to learning how to balance strobe and ambient lighting with this project, Nakagawa said he wanted them to learn how to work together.

“When you do something with a group, you can do bigger things,” he said. “When you see what you have done, wow.”



‘No Man is an Island’ BFA photography show
When: 8 to 11 p.m. Friday
Where: Art Hospital, 102 E. Allen St.
More info: The show is free and open to the public.