Dafna Lemish
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A photography exhibit featuring the works of Southern Illinois University Carbondale students, faculty and staff opens this week at the Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in Mount Vernon.
The 2011 exhibition opens Friday, Feb. 25, and runs through May 1, and will be located in the Beal Grand Corridor Gallery. An opening reception will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday. Admission is free, and the public is welcome to attend.
The annual exhibit will feature about 30 pieces, mostly from students, said Daniel Overturf, a professor in the Department of Cinema and Photography. The annual exhibition began in 1992.
The exhibit “is an excellent sampler of the diversity of our program and student body,” Overturf said. Students who are participating the exhibition, along with students who will likely be showing in next year’s event, will be present at the opening reception, Overturf said.
“In many cases, this is the first time our students will have a show in a public, independent, off-campus facility and it’s a way to have them think about showing their work,” he said.
“Working with Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in this annual exhibition continues the relationship between a rather phenomenal facility in Southern Illinois and our campus,” Overturf said. “It’s important to have that link between SIUC and Cedarhurst and we look forward to continuing to foster that connection as much as we possibly can.”
Rusty Freeman, visual arts director at Cedarhurst, said the annual exhibit “is a good collaboration between the two institutions.”
Cedarhurst Center for the Arts is at 2600 Richview Road, Mount Vernon. The facility is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. It is closed on Mondays and national holidays.
A special presentation at SIUC
Lawson 161
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
7:00 p.m.
and scenics of North America, including Texas, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, and the
Tetons.
Tom grew up in Chicago, graduated from SIUC with a degree in biology, and taught for four years
before launching a career as a freelance photographer. In 35‐plus years as a nature
photographer, he has assembled a library of 800,000+ images that includes birds and mammals
from all over the world. His photos have been featured in National Geographic, National
Wildlife, Audubon, and many other publications. He has published seven books.
Sponsored by:
Department of Zoology
Zoology Club
Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society
Southern Illinois Photographic Society
Pinckneyville high school Photography class, which worked with SIUC Photography assistant professor Antonio Martinez will have an reception for the exhibition of “Meet the Faces of Pinckneyville Project” this Friday from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Luke's Shade Tree Cafe in Pinckneyville.
Directions to Luke's Shade Tree Cafe in Pinckneyville
Article by Linda Rush as it appeared in The Southern Illinoisan
After spending an entire semester immersing themselves in their subjects, 14 students in Daniel Overturf's Small Town Documentary photography class at Southern Illinois University Carbondale were busy Sunday. Each was putting up a photo exhibit showcasing his or her chosen town.
They have invited folks in those towns to attend the opening reception, from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday in the north wing of the Communications Building; many residents of towns like Olive Branch said they plan to be there. The reception is open to the public; light refreshments will be served.
The class, offered only every other year in the Department of Cinema and Photography, pairs each student with a community in Southern Illinois. Some students, like Laura Partain, carefully drove around the region before choosing to document life in Orient. Friends had suggested that she pick a Franklin County town, she said.
Josh Reuck said he had no master plan but opted for Zeigler because "it wasn't taken."
"I quickly learned there's a rich history there," he added. Allen Patton introduced him to numerous people. And so did two SIUC building service employees who live in the town and recognized him from campus. He was surprised, he said, at the number of children and family activities in Zeigler. "Editing down my content" was the worst part of the assignment, Reuck said.
Born in Chester and raised in Ava, Aaron Kleidon wanted to document a river town. From visiting Randolph County, he knew a bit about Kaskaskia, the first Illinois capital. "I chose it for the history," he said. Once a bustling peninsula community on the Mississippi, Kaskaskia found itself isolated on an island when the river changed course. Now Kaskaskia is reachable only from Missouri. The village had nine residents when Kleidon began his project; a young family moved in and now there are "maybe 12," he said, "and another 40 or 50 on the island."
"I shot relatively few photos," Kleidon said, partly because he used an old, time-consuming process to print most of them, making the images "very fitting" for the historic settlement.
Kleidon has one photo of a native species called the Maximilian sunflower, that has survived centuries of devastating floods and other harsh conditions. Another depicts the pecan trees that have endured on the island. "The residents have survived like that," he observed.
Darren Schroeder chose to document Olive Branch. "I was in Cairo this summer and took a road trip one day, visiting Tamms, Sandusky and Olive Branch. Nobody in the class had done Olive Branch before," he said.
He loves the little café that opens up at 3 a.m. during hunting season. And he couldn't resist taking a photo of a pickup truck carrying a homemade kennel with a sticker reading "Coonhunters for Christ."
Schroeder and Partain said the only downside to the class was "the driving" to the more distant towns. Schroeder said he spent every weekend in Olive Branch; Partain said she visited Orient "sometimes three times a week."
Overturf, who has been teaching at SIUC since 1990, said "the opportunity to teach the class is one of the most rewarding endeavors I have undertaken. The students are very engaged and learn so much about the towns and, most importantly, the people in their towns. They also learn about the region and a whole, about their discipline and about themselves. While they are learning they are actually becoming more expert in the art of appreciating life beyond themselves."
The four-month immersion - longer than many romances - "will be the longest-running project many students will have throughout their career," Overturf said. "Such long-term assignments are very rare in photography."
After he dispenses initial advice to the students, he said, "I have the best job in the world. I go to class and listen to stories and look at photographs and give out advice on editing and organization. In return I hear some really amusing stories, some very touching and others that are rather frightening, to be truthful." Hearing about a week's worth of adventures in each town "is quite an experience," Overturf said.
Partain agreed. "It's been an awesome experience," she said. "It's profound what you can do in a couple of months."
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Professor Dan Overturf teaches a semester-long class at SIUC in the Department of Cinema and Photography entitled "Small Town Documentary". He has taught the class every two years, starting in 1996.
There is a Flickr site at the following address. We started the site in 2008 and have tried to reach back to previous years earlier work, so there is more sporadic participation for the years previous to that class.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
As with past versions of the course, for four months photography students work in a community that they research and select. They must introduce themselves to the village council and other officials, make their own way into the town's workings and activities. They functionally become involved in the town in every aspect, small and large, individual and communal. The town-gown relationship is advanced in the region and the students learn interpersonal skills that could only be learned by experience, not in a classroom.
SMALL TOWN DOCUMENTARY: 2010
1. Meghan Egan - McClure
2. Joan Madden - Schuline
3. Laura Partain - Orient
4. Josh Reuck - Zeigler
5. Sam Copeland - Tamaroa
6. Blossom Hock Roberts - Cambria
7. Marcie Brewer - Rosiclare
8. Aaron Kleidon - Kaskaskia
9. Ginnie Gartin - Colp
10. Darren Schroeder - Olive Branch
11. Ian McComas - Brookport
12. Hannah Russell - Mounds
13. Mary Johnson – Dowell
14. Wes Timm – Elizabethtown
We host a year-end cumulative exhibition. The ultimate conjoining, so to speak, of not only the students' work, but also the members of the communities. Students invite their communities to campus and we have a little get-together in the hallway in the SIUC Communications Building, north wing. Informal and fun, it is really a positive opportunity to connect SIU to the surrounding communities and people.
The students are currently finishing the exhibit and will hopefully be done today/Monday, November 29. The opening reception is Wednesday, Dec 1, from 4-6.
My name is Dylan Murphy, I'm from Effingham, Illinois and I'm a senior in the Photography program (Bachelor of Arts in Photography).
The reason that I chose photography was because it allows me to express myself in a creative way. While I still think I'm trying to figure out what it is that I like best, I think that I particularly am drawn to photographing people in various ways including fashion, surreal, narrative, I'm pretty all over the place. I like to draw the viewer in by creating a mood.
The reason that I chose SIU was because it was cheaper than my other options and it was a lot closer to home.
I'd have to say that my favorite classes here have been the Applied 1 and Applied 2 classes taught by Dan Overturf, the reasons being that the trips that we took to St. Louis and Chicago were very helpful and also fun.
We got to visit a lot of studios and meet other photographers and get feedback on our portfolios.
I'm a member of the Photogenesis group which is the student photography group here at SIU. We get together every week and discuss photography and put together events and they also do a show every year that we try to put together.
I've been in several exhibitions and some of the notable ones were a group show that me and a couple of other friends put together at Longbranch as well as the SPC Visual Arts Purchase Awards and I'm currently preparing for my first solo exhibition in August.
I've been lucky enough to receive a few scholarships here including the Paul Harum Memorial Award and the Kodak Professional Imaging Award.
Right now my plans for the future are still up in the air but I feel confident enough that I will be able to succeed in whatever it is that I decide to do.
I think that the most important thing is just work really hard at what you're doing and you'll get whatever you put into the program.
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A collaboration that started with a tour of Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Department of Cinema and Photography is paving the way for local high school students to learn more about photography as well as their community.
Antonio Martinez, an assistant professor in cinema and photography, is working with 16 Pinckneyville Community High School students in a “Meet the Faces of Pinckneyville Project.” The students, in art instructor Sandy Stevens’ digital photography class, are photographing and interviewing residents for the project.
Earlier this month, Martinez and the students interviewed and photographed 40 townspeople ranging in age from 3 to 95 years old. Another photo shoot is set for Thursday, Oct. 28, and will focus on capturing Pinckneyville’s youth, Stevens said. The students will then come to SIUC the next day for a three-hour workshop on editing techniques. An opening reception with photos and an edited copy of the interviews is set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Dec. 10, at Luke’s Shade Tree Café, 314 W. Water St., Pinckneyville.
Media Advisory
Reporters, photographers and camera crews are welcome to attend the photo shoot from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 28, at Pinckneyville Community High School, and the editing class from 9 to noon, Friday, Oct. 29, in SIUC’s Communications Building Room 9B. For more information on the events contact Sandy Stevens at Pinckneyville Community High School at 618/357-5013, or Antonio Martinez in SIUC’s Department of Cinema and Photography at 618/453-2365 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
“These kinds of projects are great ways to reach out to the community, to showcase our talented faculty and students, and to build those bridges of regional service that are a hallmark of this University,” said Gary P. Kolb, dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts. “Antonio Martinez is the kind of faculty member who goes above and beyond his regular duties to reach out to others and find ways to creatively engage their goals.”
Martinez said the association started when Stevens asked last spring if any faculty were willing to give a tour of the department’s facilities to her class. Martinez said he became interested because of Stevens’ digital photography class, noting that not many high schools have the resources to teach digital photography.
This is the first year the digital photography class has done this type of project, said Stevens, who came up with the idea after learning about the Mayors’ Challenge Cultural Grant through Carbondale Community Arts. The grant-sponsored event needed to be open to the public, and Stevens said she wanted “the event to be something interactive that would resonate with people and actually connect our school with the larger community.” The photo shoot is in the same spirit as The Oxford Project, where nearly all 673 residents of Oxford, Iowa, had their portrait shot in 1984, and again in 2005.
The goal is to capture the “full spectrum of people who make a community and its town history worth recognizing and celebrating,” Stevens said.
A glimpse into the project is available at www.pchsart.com/ under the “Meet the Faces of Pinckneyville” tab.
About a month ago, approximately nine of Stevens’ students came to SIUC for a hands-on workshop on photography lighting, Martinez said. Martinez uses his own lighting equipment for the project, and said the students are eager to learn and all are involved.
“This is a team effort. Everyone had a critical job in order for this to be successful,” he said.
Stevens said students are learning skills that include conducting, recording, transcribing and editing interviews, lighting techniques for portrait photography and image editing with Adobe Lightroom.
But there is more, she said. From gathering stories of the Korean War to town politics, ideas on what it takes to maintain a successful business, and favorite childhood memories, the students are taking “a strong interest in their neighbors’ and leaders’ stories,” Stevens said.
“I believe that the more students learn about others in their community, the more they will understand themselves, their roots and origins, and have a more clear idea of where they would like to go.”
Stevens said she is grateful to Martinez for his work and appreciates the support from the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts.
Martinez is excited about the project. He said he would like to see it develop into a tradition that includes other communities. A benefit is showing high school students the various arts offered at SIUC, including photographic art, Martinez said.
“When you carve out time and work with people in the community who are enthusiastic about the arts, or your specialty, that energizes you,” he said. “It is work, but I don’t consider it work because I enjoy it.”
Photographs are a “great record of who we are” and celebrate the human spirit, he said.
Martinez said he hopes to bring an appreciation for the photographic arts, along with an appreciation for Pinckneyville’s history.
“This is a great chance for the students to understand their own history,” he said.
The interdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts degree provides substantial advanced study for a small number of talented individuals. The program emphasizes the artistic and intellectual development of the student and creation of quality artistic works in photography, film, video, sound and new media. Interdisciplinary media arts exploration is encouraged though students may opt to focus and refine their skills within one medium as well. Students learn to contextualize their work within appropriate contemporary thought and practice. Avaialble course work in studio production, criticism, theory, history and combined media studies emphasizes the interwoven character of traditional and contemporary approaches and technologies in the 21st century.
http://www.gradschool.siuc.edu/application.html
Contact the MCMA Graduate Studies office manager at: 618-453-3785 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The minimum 60 credit degree requires a common core, electives and 6 credit Final Creative Thesis.
Core:
Electives: (26 Credits)
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Photographs capture a moment that can easily fade from memory.
Students in two Southern Illinois University Carbondale photography classes are working to preserve Cairo's past and present with a project that organizers hope assists Cairo's Web presence and economic development.
Twenty-five students have fanned out across the community over the past month, shooting not only the town's more historical venues, including the Custom House Museum, Magnolia Manor, and the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, but also the seemingly commonplace, everyday features that people and time could easily overlook.
"Cairo has such a rich history and distinctive look like all river towns, that I felt we were really losing something of the visual component of the town," said Daniel Overturf, an associate professor in the Department of Cinema and Photography.
Carbondale resident Andy Sisulak was working with the Cairo Chamber of Commerce to build a Web presence, and approached Overturf and Assistant Professor Antonio Martinez about using students from two upper-level photography classes for the project.
Overturf said he was excited about the possibilities because the project assists a local community and also helps students, many of whom will graduate in May, on a variety of different levels.
"It's a real educational opportunity for them because they have a chance to work with somebody who needs photographs for different purposes," Overturf said. Students can build up their individual portfolios and also create photographs for use on the Web site and various other projects, Overturf said.
Students may shoot whatever sparks their interest. Content will include historic buildings, parks, businesses, churches and other parts of the town.
The exhibition, "Cairo: The Confluence of Photography, Film and Town," is from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday, April 24, at the Custom House Museum. Proceeds from the sale of 25 framed images included in the exhibit will go to continuing preservation and restoration efforts in the town.
Building up an image bank is important for communities, particularly in this digital age, Overturf said. A photograph taken in 1973 of an ordinary street scene along Commercial Avenue in Cairo might not seem awe-inspiring. However, 37 years later, the same photograph allows people to reflect on the businesses, automobiles and events of the era.
The project is also a reflection of current trends in photography with digital cameras, Overturf said.
"A lot of people making these very kinds of unspectacular photographs with a digital camera these days may hit the delete button and it is gone forever," he said. "Not only will it not be in the bottom of a box, it will just not be there, ever. This is a way to celebrate the ordinary as you look forward to its use in the future as not being thought of nearly as ordinary, but rather a document of the time."
Monica Smith, president of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, expects the students' work will be a positive public relations tool for the city.
"It's going to give us a tool to work with that will enable us to do a past, present and future synopsis of what there was and what there is now," she said. The Web site, at www.cairoillinois.org, gives people access to old photographs "and enjoy the history that is here."
"We are very excited about it, " she said. "We are excited about working with SIUC and all of the students, and are wondering what they have come up with. We have seen them all over town."
Several groups, organizations and businesses are involved with the project, including SIUC's College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, the Department of Cinema and Photography, Cairo Public Library, Cairo Custom House Museum, Capaha Bank, SMART (Shawnee Mass Area Rapid Transit) and the Ace of Cups in Cairo. SMART is donating its bus service to take students and members of the University to Cairo for the reception, Overturf said. In addition, Canon USA donated the printing paper and ink for the project. Brian Matsumoto, an SIUC Cinema & Photography alumnus, is a Canon technical representative and spearheaded the donation, Overturf said.
SIUC Photography Panel to Discuss Ansel Adams. Exhibit Free Day, Sunday, February 28th, 2010.
Photography practitioners and historians will discuss the impact of Ansel Adams at the University Museum on Sunday, February 28th, from 2 pm - 3 pm.
Panel participants include Dr. Jordy Jones, Dean Gary Kolb, and R. William Rowley, all of the SIUC College of Mass Communication and Media Arts.
The Museum, which is open from 1-4 p.m. on weekends, will not charge for the Ansel Adams exhibit on Feb 28. Admission to this special exhibit continues to be $5 on other days; all students are free.
The exhibit will run through March 21. Except for the Ansel Adams exhibit, the University Museum is free to the public, and open Mondays-Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays-Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
SIU Foundation