SELF/PORTRAIT photo exhibition showcases student portraits
Wander into the high-ceilinged quiet of Black Family Visual Arts Center this month and one will encounter SELF/PORTRAIT, an exhibition of photographs by students of Studio Art 29, “Photography I,” and other photography classes over the span of the past two years. Student Gallery Room 102 is washed grayscale, each of its walls displaying groups of three or four black and white film photographs. The common thread between the photos is portraiture — not every work has its artist as subject, but all concern a meditation on self. Curated by studio art professor Virginia Beahan and teaching assistant Josh Renaud ’17, the photographs come together as a cohesive response to the documentary “Faces Places,” a film screened at the Hopkins Center for the Arts on Jan. 12 and Jan. 19. “Faces Places” follows 89-year-old Agnès Varda, a creative force who spearheaded the French New Wave, and 33-year-old French photographer and muralist JR on their journey through the villages of France. JR and Varda interviewed and created portraits of locals; their resulting documentary is built on the humanity of these encounters and the friendship they build in their time with each other.