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"Caught on Camera"
March 7 - April 5
Hofheimer Library Art Gallery
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By Susie Shupert '06
"Amazing" is one way to describe the collection of photographs presently in the Hofheimer Library Art Gallery. The photographs are the result of a digital camera workshop co-sponsored by the 2005 Virginia Arts Festival, the Martha Graham Dance Company and the Chrysler Museum and created by Sharon Beachum, Vic Frailing, Bethany Herring, Susan Hirschbiel, Heidi Kulberg and Ann Peterson. The photographs feature three members of the Martha Graham Dance Company, the oldest and most celebrated dance company in the world. The dancers are Blakeley White-McGuire, Maurizio Nardi and Virginie Mecene.
Sharon Beachum, a faculty member at Virginia Wesleyan College,
and Bethany Herring, a former student of Virginia Wesleyan, both participated in the workshop last spring.
"The Virginia Arts Festival likes to offer some educational activities throughout the year," said Beachum, who had received a call asking if she would like to participate in the workshop.
"It was great experience because I was able to do the workshop as a nobody," said Herring, who had little experience behind the camera prior to the workshop and now works as a freelance photographer. "I learned through the workshop that I really liked photography and I was pretty good at it. Now when I talk to people about what I have photographed, even if they don't know what the Virginia Arts Festival is, many of them have heard of the Martha Graham Dance Company."
The dancers who were photographed were performing for the Virginia Arts Festival during the time of the workshop.
"They danced a total of eight minutes — two minutes each of individual dance and two minutes as an ensemble," said Beachum.
"Everything was quick," she said about the dancing. She described how, due to the delay with digital cameras when taking a picture, by the end she just started pushing the button without anticipating the shot. Many of her photographs on display are unlike the others in that she used a long shutter speed, creating an abstract image. In addition, she added lots of color that was not in the other photos.
In between performances the photographers would meet with a panel of handpicked people who had an arts background to discuss the photos that had just been taken.
"The experience was very eye-opening to other forms of arts," said Beachum. "You would assume because we are involved in some form of art, that we would all have an understanding of what one another does, but through the workshop, I learned I am clueless when it comes to the art of dance."
"The most frustrating thing was the low-lighting," she added. "Myself and a few of the other photographers had called earlier to inquire about the lighting, and there was nothing that could be done to have more control of it."
Due to the number of people involved in creating the workshop, each organization has copyright to the material, including the Martha Graham Dance Company, the 2005 Virginia Arts Festival and the Chrysler Museum, meaning that if anyone decided to display their work, they would have to get permission from these three other organizations. In addition, the photos may never be sold.
"I don't see us having another exhibit like this to display our photos from the workshop again with all the permission we have to get," said Beachum. "We have the display at Virginia Wesleyan, because we could."
The photographs will be on display through April 5 in the Hofheimer Library Art Gallery, so go over and take a look.
For more information, call 757.455.3361.