Photos of drunk people and empty gas stations find a home together in the “Seven Weeks” exhibit.
For the past seven weeks, UNM Professor Adrienne Salinger’s Advanced Interdisciplinary Portfolio class has been working toward creating an exhibition that investigates a range of concepts using photography, video, sculpture and installation (three-dimensional pieces). The class’s final collections culminate in the “Seven Weeks” exhibit. The UNM photography program ranked No. 5 in the U.S. News and World Report’s list of best photography programs.
Salinger said the attendance at Friday’s reception was higher than that of last semester for the “Orange Chair” exhibition. This gives her hope that the prestigious UNM photography program, which has gone unnoticed for the most part, may finally earn the community recognition it deserves, she said.
The themes within the exhibit range from Micaela Buckingham’s dioramas of places that only exist in her memory to Jamie Ho’s photographs of intoxicated people.
Ho, who plans to continue photographing intoxicated people, said her project was inspired by her alcohol allergy.
“Although we all have seen how different drunk people behave and what they look like, I wanted to capture their state of mind photographically, taking everything out of context,” she said.
MichelleMummey photographed empty gas stations in Albuquerque at night. She said Salinger emphasized the importance of their work being conceptually driven.
“Although I first started out trying to make something elaborate, like making wall paper, I ended up coming back to my simple original idea of taking photos of gas stations. I realized that maybe I was just making things too hard.”
Seeing that UNM’s prestigious photography program has gone unnoticed for so long, hopefully the strong turnout at the “Seven Weeks” exhibition will highlight the true potential of the program evident in these photos.
“Seven Weeks”
exhibition
Through Friday
John Sommers Gallery
Second floor of the UNM Art Building
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