State of the Art: Penn Photography Students On Their First Grand Tour

June 23, 2009

This spring, a dozen PennDesign students took their first "grand tour" -- not of Europe, but of Beijing, China, where they spent two weeks "in pursuit of an image": exploring, through photography, "the contradictions and significance of China's radically shifting contemporary cultural climate."

It was the University's first-ever "studio abroad" opportunity for photography students, made possible by the new Howard A. Silverstein and Patricia Bleznak Silverstein Photography Program.

Prior to their departure, the students -- an even mix of grads and undergrads -- immersed themselves in Chinese language, history, and culture, while honing their conceptual targets and photojournalistic strategies. Once in Beijing, they spent their time traveling and shooting for an assigned research project.

     students' Beijing blog | PhotoUPenn blog

Back at Penn, the students displayed their work in an exhibit called "East West South North," now on view with an accompanying catalog through June 26 at the Charles Addams Fine Arts Gallery. The exhibit includes work by Jessica Marie Clauser, Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nsenga A. Knight, Nick Salvatore, Jesse Alexander Harding, Tetsugo Hyakutake, Matthew Thomas Cianfrani, Larry Shprintz, Artie Vierkant, Antonio McAfee, Elizabeth Hoy, and Leigh Van Duzer. "The Silversteins themselves were present for the opening," said Leigh, "and we had the pleasure of meeting them and thanking them for their outstanding generosity. They provided such an amazing opportunity for all of us."

     review of each artist's work

Growing the Penn Photography Program

The Silverstein program is the first of its kind for Penn photography students, and it is intended to not only support Penn's photography program, which has grown exponentially in popularity and strength, but to affirm PennDesign's place as a leader in fine arts education and training.

Photography has been at Penn since the 1860s when Eadweard Muybridge came to the University to work on human and animal locomotion. From a simple shooting stage which he built at 36th and Spruce, Muybridge created the series of time-sequenced photos of animals and people that has become iconic in the field of photography.

Fast forward to the 1990s, when Penn's photography program worked with a darkroom in a 6' x 12' closet in the so-called "Blauhaus," a temporary structure on Hill Field, with a bank of enlargers that shared a wall with the chop saws in the fabrication shop. (When the saws were in use, the vibration of the room meant that the enlargers could not be used.)

The turning point for Penn photography came in 2001, when the Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall opened. Now there are four darkrooms, two seminar rooms -- one of which doubles as a lighting studio -- a Mac lab, and support spaces for film processing, changing, and print finishing.

Penn's photography program continues to grow as more students become interested in digital photography and photography as a fine art, and as the internet extends the reach of images farther than ever in history. Ten years ago there were about 36 students per semester in photography courses at Penn -- today there are over 225.

With student interest now at an all-time high, Penn photography is poised to move forward as a significant part not only of the Fine Arts Department but of the entire University community. As part of the Penn traditon of learning across disciplines, the photography program is integrated into the broader University curriculum: photography courses fulfill requirements in Visual Studies, Communications, Fine Arts, Environmental Studies.

And photographic images are, after all, a universal language -- east, west, south, and north.

This photography program was made possible by the generous gift of Howard A. Silverstein, W'69, and his wife, Patricia Belznak Silverstein, C'81. The plan is for additional studios abroad in Spring 2011 (in Mumbai, India) and Spring 2013.

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