Faculty Photo Exhibition

The Critical Encounters exhibition I attended was located in the Faculty Center on the eighth floor of the 600 building. The exhibition actually occupied the entire Faculty center and spanned around the room. The exhibition consisted of an extensive collection of photographs taken by Columbia faculty members. The photographs were meant to express the relation between Fact & Faith, but also to give the audience a personal look at the artists.

Most of the photographs were blown up to full poster size and were accompanied by brief summaries written by the artists. Walking in, I noticed how colorful some of these were, and how it was much more than I expected. Looking at some of these photographs, you would have thought that these faculty members are all world renowned photographers. Some were very abstract and required some thought when studying the work, while others were pretty straight forward. Some had direct religious symbolism, others seemed like they had absolutely nothing to do with religion.




I had two favorite photographs that really caught my attention. One was arguably the largest print in the exhibition. It was titled something along the lines of "Floating Billboard". It depicted what looked like a road in a rural area with perhaps a farm or two on the side. Above this land is what appears to be a normal billboard, but upon a closer look, you can see that it is floating. Written on the billboard in bold letters is: JESUS. I really enjoyed the irony behind this and thought it was the best piece in the gallery.

Another collection that really caught my attention was an assortment of famous photographs from different time periods. These photos were all originally taken by others and depicted famous death scenes in America's history. For example, one was of what I can only imagine Jesse James' casket and another of a famous lynching. The interesting thing though, is that the artist slightly changed these famous photographs. He placed what can only be described as oversized neon post it notes over the bodies and instead drew out the shape of a human body. So if you can imagine, instead of seeing the actual bodies in the photograph, you would see the drawn outline of a human being. This was really impactful to me, it almost made it more human while taking away the physical aspect of it. It made you stop and think, "Wait, theres a human body behind this drawing."

I actually believe that it would be fair to assume that this gallery could fit under the question of: How Fact and Faith influence what it means to be human?

Many of the photgraphs show the relation between being an average human being and having faith. Some of them are more religious than others, but they all fit into the motif.

I very much enjoyed the exhibition and think it is one of the better additions.