Rice Media Center celebrates 40 years of photography with ‘Light & Vision II’
Media Center, Rice employees participate in Fotofest 2010 Biennial

BY JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News staff

At the conclusion of the 1969-70 academic year, a book titled “Light & Vision” celebrated the work of the students who had just completed the first photography class offered at Rice.

Next week at the Rice Media Center, an exhibition will open that celebrates work of students who studied photography in the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts in its four-decade history.

	Works by Dornith Doherty ’80, such as this X-ray of seeds, are among the photographs included in “Light and Vision II: 40 Years of Photography at the Rice University Media Center.”  Part of Fotofest 2010, the exhibition features work by 12 Rice alumni and will be on display at the Visual and Dramatic Arts Gallery in the Rice Media Center from March 10 to 26. An opening celebration will be held at 6 p.m. March 12.

Titled “Light and Vision II: 40 Years of Photography at the Rice University Media Center,” the exhibition features work by 12 Rice alumni and will be on display at the Visual and Dramatic Arts Gallery in the Rice Media Center from March 10 to 26. An opening celebration will be held at 6 p.m. March 12.

“These are works by graduates who took photography at Rice — not all of whom were visual arts majors — who are still doing photography in a serious way,” said Geoff Winningham, professor of visual arts and curator of the exhibition. “The images range from haunting self portraits to landscapes to a study of Italian architecture.”

Others are of recent immigrants, photographed by alumna Janice Rubin ’76 and commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera to accompany the 2007 opera “The Refuge.” Her photographs served as the backdrop for the production. Photos by Dornith Doherty ’80 are actually X-rays she made of seeds stored at seed banks, which collect, document, preserve and maintain viable seeds for research and conservation. Part of a collection called “Archiving Eden,” the photographs explore the role of seed banks and their preservation efforts in the face of climate change, the extinction of natural species and decreased agricultural diversity.

Other alumni photographers featured in “Light & Vision II” are Teresa Munisteri ’06, Leslie McAhren ’05, Gena Rabinowitz ’04, Rebecca Foley ’02, Jesse De Martino ’96, Mark Neel ’88, Steven Keirstead ’87, Lisa Hardaway ’81, Margaret Moore ’80, and Danny Samuels ’71, who is also Rice’s Harry K. Smith Professor in the Practice of Architecture.

This exhibition is part of Fotofest 2010, the longest-running international biennial of photography in the United States. Rice University is among more than 100 Houston-area museums, commercial galleries, nonprofit spaces, artist-run spaces, corporate spaces and retail establishments that will exhibit photographic art as part of FotoFest, which will run March 12-April 25.

Professor of Visual Arts Geoff Winningham will exhibit photos from his new book, “Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea,” at the Jung Center of Houston as part of Fotofest 2010, the longest-running international biennial of photography in the United States.

Winningham himself will have an exhibition on display at the Jung Center of Houston as part of Fotofest. “Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea” features photographs from his new book of the same name. The product of seven years of research, interviews, writing and photography, the book features photos of and stories about the people, animals and landscapes he encountered during hundreds of trips exploring 1,500 miles of coast from the Texas/Louisiana border to Veracruz, Mexico. His exhibition will be March 16-April 14 at 5200 Montrose Blvd.

Other Rice employees to participate in Fotofest 2010

Assistant university photographer Jeff Fitlow will have his photographs on exhibit at two Fotofest sites. At the Museum of Printing History, 1324 West Clay St., his work is part of an exhibition of photographs taken for Flashes of Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating uplifting portraits of children fighting cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. The exhibit will be on display through April 24; an opening reception will be at 6 p.m. March 18.

Fitlow’s photographs will also be on display in the Association of Media Photographers’ “Texas Works” exhibition in the lobby of 1100 Louisiana. This exhibit will run March 15-April 25; an opening reception will be at 6:30 p.m. March 26.

University photographer Tommy LaVergne also has an exhibit in the Thornwood Gallery, 2643 Colquitt St., which is part of Fotofest. His photographs are part of an exhibition titled “Only in Texas,” which is on display through March 17.

For more information on Fotofest 2010, visit http://www.fotofest.org/biennial2010/.