SNAPSHOTS, a photography exhibition running through this Thursday March 7, is a collection of student and faculty photographs that represent a campus-wide response to inclusion and access. Curated by Professor of Fine Art & Photography/Video Anita Allyn and three student interns– Gracie Harkins, Jessica Zhang and Franchesca Vega, the SNAPSHOTS gallery aims to promote and foster community engagement through visual storytelling.
“The idea of community and the things that you do and don’t have access to is a part that a lot of students responded to,” Allyn said.
The exhibition originated from an idea that Allyn had about wanting to do something that was as inclusive as possible for the campus community and to create something that encouraged people to think about photography as a medium of expression.
The name SNAPSHOTS is meant to convey the simpleness of photography in everyday life. Allyn explained that when choosing a name for the exhibition, her team wanted something that would reassure participants that they did not need to be professional photographers to contribute to the project.
The primary objective of the gallery is to provide a platform for showcasing the diverse experiences and perspectives within the campus community. Through carefully selected photographs, the exhibition captures everyday moments, events, and landscapes, offering viewers an insight into student and faculty perspectives of inclusion and access.
Photographs included in the exhibition range from students in a lab, to burgers on a grill to flowers in bloom.
Submissions from students and faculty were strategically arranged in the gallery to reflect specific aspects of community and inclusion. While some are more obvious representations of community such as photographs of friends posing together, other photos like the burgers on the grill represent the power of food in bringing people together.
One student submitted a series of photos of fences to highlight the issue of barriers to access and inclusion that many experience day to day.
Murphy Pickering, a sophomore who submitted photos for the exhibition, described the gallery as relaxed and welcoming.
“I was happy to submit photos that made me happy,” she said. “It was refreshing to see a room full of pure moments and nothing too fixated on.”
The SNAPSHOTS gallery exhibition is available for all to view in AIMM room 111.
– Leah Cruz