Show to feature artistic media

By Megan Finnerty
Features Editor

One day Steve Caton got tired of there being no outlet in the Lafayette area for his photography.

And he got tired of people saying that the area lacked an appreciation for the arts.

Caton works at Berry's Camera Shop and he knew there were many photographers in the area who were longing for a gallery of their own and a community to belong to.

"I just wanted something to happen in this town as far as the arts and photography go," he said.

So he got his co-worker Chris Foresman interested in the idea of a photography cooperative — a studio with lights, backdrops and equipment that would be run and funded by its members. The Photo Co-op was born.

The co-op will present its opening show, "The Color of Black and White," from 7 to 11 p.m. Friday at the Reifer's Building on the corner of Ninth and Main streets in Lafayette.

The show will offer audiences painting, pottery, video presentations and other mixed media. The M.T. Rhoades Band will jam throughout the evening.

Ali Broach, a photography instructor at Purdue, will display a series of self-portraits titled "Work in Progress." She said she looks forward to having her non-traditional work, created by putting her face against a computer scanner, critiqued and enjoyed by her peers and community members.

"I think the community lacked this forum for artists to gather and talk about their work," she said. "When they graduate and leave the collegiate setting, it's hard to have your work critically analyzed by your peers. It gives people a chance to be a community."

The co-op is a growing organization of approximately 20 area photographers designed to share equipment and studio and gallery space in a recently renovated 1,100 square foot loft.

Members can pay $30 a month for three months and can work in the space and exhibit their art several times a year. Others can pay $10 a month and participate only in shows and critique sessions. The studio has seamless back drops, light stands, hot lights, finished oak floors and a rack system to add lights.

Jill Edwards, a junior in the School of Consumer and Family Sciences, plans to use the co-op only for the critiques.

"The pictures that I take are so personal to me because they're of children that I know, that it's hard for me to be critical," Edwards said. "So an outside opinion would be important to my work to see how someone else perceives it."

Some of the non-photographic artworks will be two videos by Rob Pierce, a senior in the School of Technology. He and Caton shot 32 hours of digital video during an 8,000-mile road trip last summer and edited them into a 10-minute film and an hour-long film.

"We wanted something more than what people expected," he said. "For example, we set up the camera for an hour on a city street and whoever walked by during that hour would be in the video."

Caton said the show's photographs will give people a way to analyze life's still moments even though reality moves by so quickly.

FEATURES DESK PHONE:
(765) 743-1111 ext. 256

Features editor:
Megan Finnerty

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