Your future, our focus
POWELL, Wyo. - Area residents are invited to look at local landscapes through new eyes when students in the Northwest College Photography Theme House class celebrate the release of their 2010 photo calendar from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, at the Parlor News Coffeehouse.
The students looked at nature through a different kind of lens to produce next year's calendar. By walking on the surrealistic side of photographic communication, they hope to take the viewer on an introspective journey into the minds of the NWC photographers and how each one interprets nature around them.
The photos vary just as much as the minds that created them. Images range from one as simple as light falling on a leaf to an angel perched against a majestic sea of clouds, to a tree breaking out of a container to stand beside the books on a shelf.
Each month's photo was inspired by a quote. Some of the more well-known passages inspired by nature include Dante Alighieri's "Nature is the art of God," Walt Whitman's "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars," and Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
During the opening, the calendars will be available for purchase at $5 each, and students will be on hand to sign them and talk about their photos and the experiences and insights gained from the project. David Vaughan, the college's public relations photography specialist, and Gary Bakken, an instructor in the college's photography program, will lend to the ambiance with a sampling of their vocal and guitar harmonies.
The Photography Theme House is a college course in which students play an integral part in developing the class curriculum. Participants further their photographic skills by reaching out to build relationships with a range of community service projects, ranging from gallery openings to photographic outings, while donating proceeds to photography-related organizations and local causes. The calendar production project also gives photo students an idea of a full, start-to-finish commercial project and the opportunity to see how the final project is received by the public.
Theme house students participating in this year's calendar project are from Wyoming: Mathieu Perry of Byron, Caiti Schuler and Wesley Sisel of Gillette, Brian Harrington of Greybull, Dave Leinen of Newcastle, and Lindsay Linton of Powell; plus Ryan French of Billings, Mont.; Dezareigh Meckel of Roundup, Mont.; and Michelle Gillatt of Nampa, Idaho. Jennifer McKibben, a graphic design student from Baggs, designed the calendar.
They invite area residents to drop by after work Friday, Dec. 4, to enjoy the music and photographs, and check out the calendar.
